Rise of the Sun
by Jetzul
Summary: The Exo-Force team has finally destroyed Meca One! As they begin to push the Robots to defeat, little do they know, a traitor is around them, and has been watching every movement of theirs. And now, the Exo-Force team will have to face some of their biggest nightmares, and choices that could even mean having to betray your own friends.
1. Chapter 1

**OK PEOPLE, THIS IS THE FIRST EXO-FORCE FANFIC WRITTEN IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS! WOOOOOOOOOOOO! CELEBRATION!**

**First off, I want to thank Pixeljam for supporting me, and Brainiac5 for giving me the right to use a couple of her characters, AND for her awesome Exo-Force stories that totally inspired me.**

**I wasn't too sure on how I had to write the characters' personalities, so if you find anything a little weird, sorry. I did my best.**

**Just so you all know this takes place AFTER the Jungle Era. The battle machines (Cameleon Hunter, Water Dragon, etc.) have been busted, the team returns to their Golden City Era battle machines. There will be more of an explanation in the future chapters. **

Ha-ya-to sat up-straight on the bed, yawning loudly. "FINALLY!" he yelled. "We managed to get a good night's sleep. I slept like a log." The red-head turned to his fellow aerial pilot friend. "Whaddya say Hikaru?"

The boy in question smiled and waved at him with the back of his hand. "Yeah…I'm surprised to see the Golden City still standing. I was worried it'd be attacked when we'd be off to find Keiken." The boy ran a hand through his hair. He groaned slightly. "I'm gonna take a shower and fix my hair." He said.

Ha-ya-to noticed the blond streaks that had appeared in his dyed blue hair. He grinned while throwing a shirt on. "All right. I'll go right away to see Sensei Keiken."

"The old man must be resting. He's been through so much torture, he should be left alone with Hitomi. Let them catch up a little." Hikaru called from the bathroom. "Go see Ryo if you want company. He' always up early. And check out his sister too. These two are inseparable since the battle with the Striking Venom." There was the sound of rushing water coming from the shut door.

Ha-ya-to shrugged. "All right." He strapped his golden armor over his uniform before leaving. "I'll leave the door open so everyone can see you naked." He shouted.

"Lame Ha-ya-to." Hikaru called.

Ha-ya-to grinned. He was about to leave the door wide open, but thought twice when he noticed Takashi out, speaking to some pilots. No need to attract a commotion.

He closed the door, and raced across the Golden City, hoping to find his techie friend. "Ryo should be in the labs. And I'm willing to bet that he's in the middle of a 3d hologram chess match with Hitomi." He said.

* * *

When the red-head reached the labs, he was surprised to see the techie leaning forward against one of the Golden Guardian's legs, his arms inside the open compartment. Hitomi was sitting by the toolbox, her features completely relaxed.

"Hey guys, what's up? I was expecting you two to be locked in a chess game by now." The pilot said

Hitomi looked his way, and smiled hugely at her friend. She got up and walked briskly towards Ha-ya-to. She gestured at him to lean over. When the boy was about at her height, she whispered in his ear. "Ryo's in a really bad mood. Some guy came back from his mission, his battle machine completely busted. He's been trying to fix the thing since last evening. He was supposed to have finished with about two or three hours ago, but he realized that some wires had melted together, and he's got to do everything all over again."

Ha-ya-to winced. Even for someone who loved building like Ryo, this was kinda sucked. He looked at the techie. "All night? That's just wrong." He looked at the tool box, then around the room. "Where's Rika, you know, Ryo's sister?"

Hitomi shrugged. "I dunno. I came here early too hoping to find her, but all I found was a grumpy techie-"

"The grumpy techie has ears you know!" Ryo snapped at the pilot. "Now unless you have something interesting to say, GET OUT!"

Ha-ya-to winced. "Yup. Definitely in a bad mood. Well I'll check the training center. If not, then I guess I just hop into my Water Dragon and go on patrol."

Hitomi simply shrugged. "Whatever you say." She walked back to her former place next to the tool box, and sat back down. "I'll make sure that moody-man doesn't lose himself-"

"GOD DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL ARE THE ZELYIUM METAL CHIPS DOING THERE!" Ryo howled in frustration, before sinking his arm in the hatch, and ripping out some pieces of metal attached to some wires.

Hitomi rolled her eyes. "As long as he doesn't end up throwing his tools across the lab." She quickly corrected. "Say hi to Rika for me." She said.

Ha-ya-to nodded. He turned and sped out of the room.

* * *

Hikaru entered the large Communication center. It was located in the middle of the second level of Golden City. Hidden safely under the thick pieces of rock and other rough materials, it incredibly quiet and dimly lit by the numerous computers and buttons that flashed everywhere. About a dozen people were seated in their respected areas, scanning some zones, giving orders on the comm. systems, or looking through the reports some scouts had handed over.

Hikaru looked around the room, hoping to find someone in particular. He was about to give up, when he found the boy sitting in a seat, surrounded by hundreds of similar people. The best aerial battle machine pilot headed his way. "Hey Swift. Got any news?"

The boy in question jumped in surprise, not having noticed his approach. "No nothing special." He answered, sitting back normally on his chair. "Why?"

"We busted the Robot's secret lab, got the code-brick back, and protected the Golden City. I dunno, I thought they might try to get some payback or something, what do you think?"

Swift grinned. "Good point." He swiped the screen, running through a couple of coordinates, and checking a few bridges. "Down on the Bridge, the Surei Gate is under a minor attack. It should be easy to repel, but if you want to join, you can ask Sensei Keiken…"

Hikaru leaned over, and stared at the screen. "Yeah maybe…" his blue eyes flickered, and he found himself staring at the coordinates of the Taichi Bridge, a bridge that stood one level lower the Sentai Fortress. The pilot shook his head. "Yeah, I guess I'll do that." He stretched back to his full height. "Well I guess I'll see ya later Swift." He said, before turning and walking briskly away.

* * *

Ryo closed the lid of the battle machine. "AT LAST!" he announced. "Twelve hours on working on this stupid thing, and I'm finally done." He was busy collecting his tools when he noticed Hitomi staring at him rather intently. "Hitomi? When did you get here?"

The girl nearly face-palmed. "Since early this morning. You didn't seem to be in the mood of cooperating, so I just stayed here while you finished your…tantrum?"

Ryo felt his inside heat rocket skyward. He should seriously work on trying to calm himself down when he was frustrated…maybe Kroujei was right about those yoga lessons…The techie slammed his head. What was he thinking? "Did I miss anything?" he asked, while gesturing to her to pass him the toolbox.

Hitomi picked up the red colored box and gave it to him. "Nothing really, no. Ha-ya-to is busy trying to find your sister, but otherwise…"

The boy nodded. "Good." He said while taking off his oily gloves. "Well sorry for writing you all off the way I did." He plopped the dirty leather equipment on a chair, and began to walk out of the lab, the raven-black haired girl behind him. "Have you been treating Uplink well while we were gone?"

"I think so…"

Ryo stopped so suddenly Hitomi crashed into him. "You…think…so?"

'_Crap, I forgot about his bond with Battle Machines…even for really old ones…better play it safe._' Hitomi thought madly. "Well the robots attacked the city once when you four were gone out searching for the code brick. We repelled them, and some battle machines were slightly damaged…Uplink was still has a couple of dents in it…"

Ryo's face turned abnormally pale. "You…left…dents…in…Uplink?" He turned to face her. "DENTS! AND YOU DIDN'T FIX HIM?"

Hitomi was well aware of Ryo eccentricity when it came to battle machines. Whenever a battle machine-especially one of Ryo's-would be left with just a scratch, the engineer would blow a gasket. But even if used to the outbursts, they always took her by surprise.

"YOU SHOULD KNOW BY NOW THAT THE METAL HAS TO AT ITS FINEST! IF NOT, THE RADIOACTIVE CORE CAN MALFUNCTION, AND DAMAGE THE POWER CONVERTER! THE OVERHEATING CAN BREAK THE SPIRAL CORE AND THEN THE AUTOGUIDED MISSILES WILL BE DESTROYED DUE TO THE LACK OF FLEXIBILITY IN THE OPRIMUIN GEAR! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

Hitomi stood still for a moment, trying to comprehend half of the vocabulary the genius had used. Being an engineer as well, she knew what the pieces of the battle machines were, but Ryo-being the smarty-pants as he was-constantly used large words, making comprehension usually difficult. "I dunno…since you like the Cyclone Defender much more, I thought you had given up on Uplink…"

The mechanic dove back into the lab, yelling: "DON'T WORRY UPLINK! I'M COMING!"

Hitomi sweat-dropped at the techie's manner to consider battle machines as live beings. "I think he needs a day off and away from his labs…I'll consider it with grandfather…" she turned and stretched her limbs, facing the sun that beat down on the city. "Thank god this city does exist. I don't think I would be able to resist the cold shadows the Sentai Fortress lived in. I wonder how the boys survived in it." She looked around the city, now rustling with pilots. "Speaking of boys, I wonder if Ha-ya-to found Rika and Takashi…better check on him before he does something stupid."

* * *

'_Okay, that was stupid thing to do._' Ha-ya-to thought, as he pulled his Aero Booster sideways, avoiding one of Takashi's beams of fire. The green bolt scratched the Blue Flacon, but otherwise, missed completely.

The red-headed pilot had found both Takashi and Rika training in the simulator room, and had decided to join them.

A three way battle had started, Ha-ya-to in his Aero Booster, Takashi in his Blade Titan, and Rika in her Golden Guardian. As the three of them fought, Takashi made some strange remark about Rika being 'the physical representation of the inferior race' and that 'she ran away of fights because she was a female'. The taunt seemed to be quite effective, as Ryo's twin dove madly on him, yelling "YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!" And Ha-ya-to decided this was the opportunity to yell: "Takashi just became Steakashi!"

If Rika was mad at what Takashi said, then the green-haired pilot exploded at what the cheeky pilot had said. As a result the pilot went into his 'Savage Takashi' mode. It's pretty much an angry person seeking revenge.

Except untamable.

So now, Rika, still in Golden Guardian, who had been blown to the other side of the simulator room and who was lying still, dazed and stunned, her battle machine nearly out of commission, and poor Ha-ya-to became Takashi's punching-bag and source of amusement to which he could unleash his 'primitive nature' (aka, Gorilla Wrath-like Hikaru usually nicknamed it).

The red-head made a wild dive, and just when he was about to smash against the ground, he pulled up violently, and the Aero Booster began flying at very low altitude, nearly scraping the ground as it shot towards the Blade Titan. "Open Fire." Ha-ya-to slammed his fist into the button in front of the yoke.

The canon just above the cockpit fired a thick green beam. Ha-ya-to instantly followed that attack with his two other canons on the side of the battle machine. The trio attacks headed straight for Takashi. "With this much fire-power, there's no way his armor will resist. And there's no time for him to dive to safety."

Takashi grinned evilly. His eyes gleamed. There was a huge explosion where the Blade Titan stood.

"WOO HOO! SAVAGE TAKASHI JUST GOT TAMED!" The aerial pilot cheered. Though his face fell when he saw the red battle machine hiding safely behind its shield. "Or not." He added.

"You think the Aero Booster is the only battle machine that got up-grades. Ryo gave this shield stronger armor plating. And did I mention the guns? Do you want to see for yourself?" the Savage Takashi asked so gently Ha-ya-to was on the verge of freaking out.

"Um…no?" Ha-ya-to answered, well aware that if the green-haired pilot fired, he wouldn't be able to dodge it.

"Too bad." Takashi fired a huge stream of destruction just as the cheeky boy pulled upwards. The blast smashed against the Aero Boosters reactors, destroying one entirely.

Ha-ya-to screamed as he fought to control his battle machine. He succeeded, and wild eyed, he tried to fly to safety. Even with its thick armor, the reactor had been completely destroyed. Normally, the Aero Booster was built to take this kind of damage and continue the battle, but the reactor exploded, taking another one with it.

With only one engine left, the Aero-Booster plummeted, and crashed on the ground with a deafening roar. Ha-ya-to detached his Blue Falcon at the last second, and jumped to safety, though the shock-wave of the explosion sent him flying across the simulator room.

Seeing the small battle machine lying still and powerless, Takashi walked towards it, like a predator stalking a cornered prey. He flipped it over, and pointed his weapon at the powerless boy. "Any last words?" he asked evilly.

"Does mercy count?"

"No." Takashi answered, as he pulled the trigger. The green beam pulverized the armor, sending chunks of blue pieces of metal across the room.

Ha-Ya-To was instantly zapped back to the training center. He scratched the back of his head embarrassed when he saw the remains of his Blue Falcon.

"You seriously gotta watch your mouth."

The red head blushed. "I know. But I just can't help it. There are just some opportunities which are too good to miss"

Hitomi scowled. "You're really gonna get in trouble some day. And no one will be around to help you!"

Ha-Ya-To shuffled and looked down at his feet. First he gets busted by the Savage Takashi, and then he gets lectured…by none other than the very daughter of Sensei Keiken. Seriously, even though Hitomi was one of his best friends, being lectured by her was a blow to his pride. "Rika started it." he complained like a child.

Ryo's twin snapped her head in the aerial pilot's direction. "Listen here hot-head, I am no where near responsible to what you said." her intimidating glare sending shivers down the pilot's spine.

Both female pilots glared and took a step closer to Ha-ya-to, whose mind was now racing furiously, desperately trying to find a way to protect his male's pride, which he knew was going to get a big hit. "Listen ladies…can we settle this the old fashion way?" he asked. He knew that they were both taking advantage of their gender, since Ha-ya-to was unable to fight girls. He looked around fearfully for help. "TAKASHI! HELP ME PLEASE!"

The winner of the training battle turned to the cornered boy. He pretended to think for a moment, before shaking his head. "Naw. You still owe me for calling me 'Steakashi'…" He left, leaving his fellow comrade to face off two annoyed girls.

* * *

Keiken was standing proudly in the Golden Tower. The strongest point of the Exo-Force gave a majestic view of the legendary city of the Golden City.

For the first time in months, he was able to feel the hot of the sun beat against his old and wrinkled skin. It filled him with confidence, warmth, pride and invincibility. Oh he was so happy to feel all those things again.

He took a deep breath. Meca One had been destroyed along with the Robot's main Headquarters. He knew that the Robot's weren't done just yet, and they would do their best to avenge their fallen leader.

But with his proud and powerful army, now pumped by the huge victory of the four hero pilots, he knew that it was the beginning of the end: the Robots will slowly be pushed back to the southern part of the mountain, before vanishing forever.

The sound of a closing door made him turn around. "Sensei Keiken? Are you here?"

Keiken smiled. "On the balcony Hikaru. What do you want?"

The blue haired pilot stepped out of the enclosed place, and into sunlight. "When I was on patrol, I noticed a small legion of Thunder Furies led by a Shadow Crawler and Claw Crusher heading upwards the mountain towards the village of Hylory. It'll take them a few hours to get there, but I wanted to ask if I could take them out with the help of a couple of pilots."

Keiken nodded. "Take a squadron of Golden Guardians to deal with them. But send some Gate Guardians to evacuate the village just in case."

"Yes Sensei." He stood there for a moment, thinking for a moment. "And Sensei, I'm just curious, but I haven't seen Ha-Ya-To for a while. To be honest, I'm getting a little worried. Can you try to contact him?"

The old man smiled. "Of course. Now go deal with the group of robots."

Hikaru turned, and raced out of the room, yelling his thanks.

Keiken turned back to the sun. He closed his eyes, and relaxed himself, trying to make the most of the moment. Suddenly, the rays slowly dimmed, and the old man opened his eyes, tension beginning to grow at the idea of a robot attack.

It was just a cloud passing across the sun.

Slightly disappointed, he walked back into the Golden Tower, and headed towards the giant computer. He pressed a few buttons on it. Instantly, a small speaker popped out of next to the screen.  
All the pilots were given a small headphone which gave the possibility to speak to one another freely. "Ha-ya-to? Where are you?"

Ha-ya-to's response was almost instant. "In the sentinel room."

Keiken was surprised. Ha-ya-to hated that area. Why in the world was here there? Better ask. "What are you doing there? Are you feeling all right?"

"Oh, just fine. My male's pride has just been raped, and I'm running away from to wild female humans."

Keiken heard someone else speak. It sounded like Rika "Wild Female humans? What is wrong with you! Here let me…"

Everything became a total mess. "Wha-Rika leggo I was joking-"

"WHERE THE HELL IS YOUR MATURITY?"

"Rika! I-ACK! OW THAT HURTS! LEGGO!"

There was the sound of shouting and panting, followed by a loud 'thud' and a crunching sound.

Keiken rolled his eyes. The pilot had dropped his earphone, and someone had stepped on it by accident.

* * *

A blue and white battle machine screamed across the sky, followed by a whole squadron of golden, red and white colored battle machines.

The unofficial leader of the Exo-Force team looked around. "I can't find them…did they hide under the trees?" Hikaru narrowed his eyes, as he recalled the moment when he, Takashi and Ryo were still searching for the Golden City. The Shadow Crawlers and Claw Crushers could hide within the dense vegetation easily. But what about the Thunder Furies? They were noisy, clumsy and they released some black murky smoke. They should reveal their position.

The eight Battle machines approached some giant rocky plains. "This is where some abandoned mines lay." he said to himself. Something clicked in his head. "DISPATCH THE TEAM!" he yelled in his mike.

"Why blue leader? My scopes catch nothing." Blue three asked.

"BREAK OFF NOW!" Hikaru shouted. He pulled the yoke of the battle machine. The Sky Guardian made an almost uncontrollable barrel roll. All the Golden Guardians made sharp and rough turns.

Not a second later, there was a loud roar, and dozens of red beams shot out of the abandoned mines.

"This is why we couldn't find them in the scopes! They were hiding underground." Blue five said, as he opened fire, a thick blast of green energy tearing through the armor of a Thunder Fury, which exploded, sending chunks of rocks and gravel in all directions, some of them hitting the human battle machines, denting their armor.

"Watch out! These bots are better organized than we give them credit for." Blue two warned.

Hikaru snarled. "All rockets fired." he snapped, as he pressed the yellow button. The four rockets just above the cockpit screamed to life. The yellow weapons slammed into the rocks, causing huge explosions that tore the whole side of the mountain to shreds.

Blue three raised his giant canon, and the Golden Guardian vomited green rays of destruction at the hidden robots. The blasts crashed against the granite, before exploding.  
"LOOK OUT!" Someone yelled.

Huge chunks of rocks shot in all directions once again. The blue three's Golden Guardian took a whole volley of the sharp minerals. The armor survived the attack, but the glass of the cockpit cracked, barely surviving the recoil.

The robots wasted no time in countering. They fired at the human. The battle machine shook dangerously, but the pilot managed to fly to safety.

Hikaru panted, and bit his lower lip in concentration. How could they destroy the robots without risking their own lives like this? All their weapons were heavy-duty weapons. None of them were adapted to battle in these conditions. The boy gritted his teeth. They had laid a trap for them, but it seems that their plan had backfired.

He was about to order the other pilots to retreat, when he noticed blue five land on the ground. The pilot jumped out of the battle machine. He crouched at the foot of his battle machine, and began fiddling with something at the bas e of the foot. Suddenly, some transparent liquid poured out of the leg, followed by a stream of black ink.

Fuel and oil.

Hikaru's blood turned cold. He knew exactly what the boy was planning to do. "Blue five stop this craziness NOW!"

Blue five answered with his earphone. "Listen Blue leader, but we can't let the robots advance further. If we continue the battle, we'll just get knocked out of the sky. We have no choice."

"Kokujo-" Hikaru tried to reason.

"We haven't got a choice!" Kokujo yelled. "I've left just enough power to the Golden Guardian to fire a shot. That should be enough to destroy the battlefield." he clambered back in the battle machine. "Promise me you'll defeat the robots!"

"Kokujo-"

"PROMISE ME!"

Hikaru closed his eyes tightly. "I…I promise." he couldn't bear the thought of losing one of his friends. "Good-bye Kokujo."

"See ya. Thanks for being my friend Hikaru."

Hikaru felt tears running down his cheeks. "All battle machines retreat." he ordered. All the battle machines veered away, back into the sky and to safety.

Hikaru looked behind him. He saw the boy making the victory sign, before the entire battlefield exploded like a supernova, swallowing everything. Trees, rivers, the rocky plain, the robots and the heroic boy.

* * *

Keiken inserted a small disc in a computer. "Swift, activate the proton scanner. I want this thing examined to the smallest detail. Kevin, what did you find?"

"Uhhh…location of some human prisoners and the manufactories where the robots build their weapons. There's also a list of which robots might take Meca One's place."

Keiken thought a little. "Send three squadrons of Golden Guardians to the location of the prisoners. Track down the robot that is the most likely to become the leader, and prepare a plan to destroy it. Finally, order three pilots to destroy the locations of the manufactories."

"Yes sir."

One of the speakers began talking. "Blue group to Golden City, we're asking permission to land. Status: mission complete." Keiken perked up at the announcements. "Give them the permission to land. I need to speak to Hikaru."

He got up and walked briskly out of the communication system.

* * *

Keiken watched the pilots land and climb out of the battle machines. He felt his blood turn cold when he noticed that two pilots were missing: Hikaru's Sky Guardian and Kokujo Golden Guardian.

He saw a boy with the number 4 on his shoulder walk towards him. The boy saluted. "Mission a success sir. The village has also been evacuated as you wished. However, Kokujo Heriata has been killed in effort to stop the robots. Hikaru left to find his family to give them the news."

Keiken felt a wave of pain crash into him as he heard the death of the pilot. He realized how close he had become with all his pilots. He straightened. "Good job. Get some rest while you all can. I'll wait for Hikaru."

He turned and walked back outside towards the Golden Tower.

* * *

Hitomi knocked on the doors of one of the labs. "Ryo, you in there?" she asked. Hearing no response, she allowed herself to open the door. "Ryo? Are you there? I wanted you to ask you if you could-whoa!" The emerald-eyed girl gasped. The lab may have been a hopeless mess as usual, but what really caught her eyes was the beautiful golden white and orange battle machine. Though half-complete, Hitomi was awed by it.

There were huge reactors at the legs of the battle machine, and the golden wings shone majestically just above the cockpit and around the arms. On one arm a huge canon that could clearly give a definition of power.

There was one huge reactor on each leg, which still had to be connected to the power converters.

Someone muttering snapped Hitomi out of her trance. She looked around the left leg of the machine and saw Ryo the techie twirling a screwdriver in one hand, the other buried inside the metal compartment.

Hitomi also realized why he hadn't answered her knocks: he was so busy listening to something on YouTube with his headphones, muttering the lyrics, a huge grin on his face. She leaned against the metal, and began to watch him work, a smirk on her face. This could serve as perfect blackmail material for later.

Ryo grabbed a screw and a wrench. He quickly typed something on the computer. Then he started inserting the screw in the armor, timing the spins with what appeared to be the rhythm of the music. "This is Exo-Force, I need to build some more, just one more machine and that's it I'm off" he sang gently.

Hitomi fought hard not to laugh. It appeared that he was listening to a remix of 'How to Save a Life' of The Fray. So he did admit that Ha-ya-to had some skills when it came to singing and writing lyrics.

When the screw was tightly screwed, he put the wrench down, and peered inside the open latch. He turned around, as if looking for something. He found his finding lying on the other side of the lab: a hammer. He stared at it for a moment, before making a wild dive for it, singing all the way. "Keiken's on vacation once again, teens are now your friends, you'll have the pen full, this is Exo-Force, enjoy your cooked chicken." He looked at the hammer as though he had just accomplished a huge feat.

Hitomi began laughing silently. This was really just too good.

The engineer turned, and finally noticed Hitomi. "Heya." he said. He turned back to the battle machine, and continued working on it.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide. "WAIT WHAT!" he yelled. He tore off his headphones, his face turning beet-red. He stared at Hitomi, his mouth opening and closing, like he was trying to say something, and failing miserably. How in the world did she get in here? Didn't he lock the door?

Hitomi pressed her forehead against the battle machine, trying to control her laughter. "God Ryo, you should see yourself work. It's hilarious"

"H-how d-did-" Ryo stuttered. "I locked the door."

Hitomi sat down. She enjoyed seeing Ryo like this. These were those rare moments when Ryo had no control over the situation, but she also found his reactions awfully cute. "I thought you didn't like Ha-ya-to's songs." she said innocently.

Ryo felt like he was melting. "Some of his songs are good…" he muttered.

"I didn't know you sung while working. I find it very…interesting." Ah she just loved pressing buttons like this.

Ryo really wished the ground would swallow him up right now. He silently prayed to god that he'll cut him some slack for once, and help him get out of the situation.

But as usual, for all the engineers, god is the most evil thing in existence: he'll only make things worse for them. Hitomi pointed at a corner, and Ryo followed her finger, and saw in horror that there was a security camera.

"The dudes behind the camera must've had a good show." she stated. She started laughing again when she saw the horrified look on the boy's face. "Relax, the thing's deactivated. Besides, no one would dare to look into the private moments of the legendary pilot Ryo now, would they?"

Ryo relaxed slightly. "What do you want Hitomi?" he asked, doing his best to change the subject.

The girl decided to cut the boy a bit of slack. "So metal-head, what are you building?"

Glad that he was out of the sticky situation, Ryo grinned hugely, and stretched his arms out at the half complete battle machine. "This is the sister of the Golden Guardian! While its brother relies on heavy armor, this one relies on speed. It's meant to go as fast as the Aero Booster."

Hitomi stared at the battle machine in wonder. "Wow…that's gonna be hard. When do you think you'll be finished building it?"

"Her" Ryo corrected.

Hitomi rolled her eyes, a little annoyed. "Okay, 'her', when will you have finished building 'her'?"

"I'm not too sure, but probably within a week or two. I haven't found a name yet, but that's the finishing, so I've still got some time for it. Then, I'll give her a couple of documents hidden safely in the Golden Tower. But first, I promised her I'd finish the limbs by tonight." He smiled at the battle machine lovingly, causing Hitomi to face-palm. "They're just dumb machines Ryo. Stop acting like they're your babies or something."

Ryo looked at her, his eyebrow raised. "One day, you'll regret having said that."

Hitomi merely glared at the mechanic. "Anyway, Keiken wanted you search for an Exo-Code that was discovered not too far from here"

Ryo nodded. "I'll use the Mini Rocket Speeder. I should be back soon with something this fast."

Hitomi shrugged. "Be careful." she said, concern present in her voice. "If you run into robots, you won't be able to battle properly. The thing's wasn't made for fighting in the first place."

Ryo retied his bandana, nodding. "I know. But since we usually find these code bricks before those tin cans, I shouldn't I have a problem right?"

"Mm." was the reply. Hitomi got up. "Just be a good boy, and do as I say from now on ok?"

Ryo cocked an eyebrow. "Or else?"

"The whole city will have the pleasure of knowing that you sing and dance while working."

Ryo flared. Muttering something inaudible about not dancing, he stomped towards to the Mini Rocket Speeder, so he could prepare for the quick journey.

**Yeah, Ryo singing. Brainiac5 got the idea of Ha-Ya-To being an awesome singer and lyric writer, so I just took up the idea. ^^**

**Rika didn't appear too much in this chapter, since she's Brainiac5' property, and this was written just before I got her permission to use her. BUT NOW THAT I HAVe, I'M GONNA ROCK THE WORLD! WOOOOOO!**

**SEE YOU NEXT TIME DUDES!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES! School is really beginning to pressure me and I'm really afraid of failing the final test. We call it BAC, I think the americans call it SAT...ANYWAY, my whole life depends on this, and I really don't want to fail it. So it ended up swallowing up most of my time. **

**For this chapter, I've focused more on the humor and the deepening of the plot. ^^ You'll be surprised by some events.**

**I've been seriosuly inspired by some comics in the Exo-Force magazines I found in the wikia and the comics itself. I'll explain why everything is relying on the Golden City Era Battle Machines. **

**Great, now thanks to this fanfic, I've become a real fan of Exo-Force. I'm addicted to it. WOOO HOOO!**

Hikaru gently landed the Sky Guardian in the docking bay. He had been gone for only a few hours, but he felt like he had left the Golden City for years. As expected, the family had taken the news of Kokujo's death very hard. He had tried to console them a little, but it was difficult, judging that he was a close friend of the boy, both of them having met at middle school. And both parents refused to put the blame on the aerial pilot.  
The little brother, however, was not happy. After making a huge tantrum, Hikaru was finally glad to be released from the insults and taunts.

With a throbbing headache and a heavy heart, he trudged out of the area only to find Rika. The older sibling of Ryo stood there, her arms crossed, an irritated expression on her face. "Where were you?" she asked. "You were gone for quite a while now."

Hikaru shrugged. "Did I miss anything?" he asked, rubbing his head.

Rika shrugged. "Sensei wanted to see you, but otherwise no."

The pilot nodded. "All right. Wanna come? I could use some company…"

Rika grinned, and linked arms with him. "All right then! To the Golden Tower Flyboy!"

The next thing Hikaru knew was that he was being dragged against his will towards the center of the Golden City. Any person would be slightly irritated by the action, but Hikaru (he blamed it on his exhaustion) didn't care.

He smiled. "Yeah let's go."

* * *

Ha-Ya-To was slumped in his pilot's seat, staring at the setting sun in the distance in his deactivated Aero Booster. His feet were resting on the control board, his arms crossed behind his head, his eyes closed. He had heard about Kokujo's death, and it reminded him that the war wasn't over yet.

This war was awesome in the sense that he got to meet all his new friends, Ryo, Hikaru, Takashi…but especially because that he got to learn the true feeling of being able to fly. He smiled and looked down at his Aero Booster. He rubbed the armor of the Blue Falcon. He felt a connection to the battle machine, far from being as strong as Ryo's, but he felt a small one.

But the real downside of this war: they had to fight tin cans which kept them up at night. The need to rescue Keiken had been an exhausting mission. Almost impossible too.

They hadn't been able to sleep for a whole week, and there was a moment when they nearly ran out of food. Takashi had force the food down Ryo's throat, since he was the youngest (18 years old, the rest of them being in between 19 and 22) and had to be in complete control since he was their 'strategy' dude and their only mechanic.

Ha-Ya-To smirked at the memory. He pitied the young mechanic for the blast in his pride, but someone had to eat the food…and it was normal for the oldest to pick on the youngest.

Ah those were good times.

"Ha-Ya-To. Get out of your sleeping trance. Keiken needs you."

The red head turned and looked at Takashi with a deadpanned expression. "Really?"

Takashi sighed. "Yes he did. Now don't make me drag you out of there."

Ha-Ya-To yawned. He looked at the controls. "When the robots will have cut the trees, the world will miss having a good snack." He said simply, but with extreme seriousness.

Takashi deadpanned at him. "What," he said "are you talking about?"

"I dunno. Just felt like the thing to say." Ha-Ya-To said, before jumping out of his seat and dashing out of the room. "LAST ONE AT THE GOLDEN TOWER IS MECA ONE!"

Takashi was still trying to figure out what the red-head had just said. "That makes no sense." He finally said. "Where did his common sense go?" he sighed. He rubbed his head. "Whatever…"

* * *

Ryo looked down at the GPS gear. After the tracking device, the code-brick was somewhere around here…He landed his Mini Rocket Speeder in the forest. After strapping a blade on his back, putting a gun in his holster and grabbing the tracking device, he started walking down the forest.

The tracking device started beeping gently, telling him he was going in the right direction. Ryo's eyes narrowed. "Strange…I never heard of code-bricks this far from the Golden City. We're getting closer to the Sentai Fortress." He tried to shrug off the tension and pressure that was building inside him. He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

He stepped on a twig, which made a loud snapping sound. It shattered the heavy silence of the forest.

Ryo came to an abrupt stop.

"Of course. That's what's wrong. There's no sound."

Indeed, the forest was dead quiet. Normally at that time of the day, the birds would be chirping, the squirrels would be rustling the leaves for acorns and nuts. The wolves would be hunting for food, and the rabbits jumping in all directions.

But there was none of that. Just complete silence.

Dread fell over Ryo. The Robots were nearby. They must've reached the area before him.

Crouching, he silently crawled over a tiny hill. Hiding safely behind a tree, he peered past it.

THERE! Two Dark Panthers, along with three sentries and one Iron Drone were patrolling around an area. And much to Ryo's horror, just behind the metal enemies was glowing soil. The code-brick must be right there! The robots must not have noticed it yet. But now…how in the world was he going to get it?

Ryo took out his gun. He looked at the tracking device. Well looks like he didn't have a choice. He threw the tiny machine behind a boulder in the opposite of his hiding place. It clattered against the rocks, making the robots pause in their tracks. A sentry turned. It stared at the area. "There's no life-forms. My scopes blank."

The robots resumed their travel, more aware of their surroundings. Ryo charged his blaster and fired at the tracking device.

It exploded, sending molten pieces of metal in all directions.  
The patrol paused, turned, and raced off to investigate. Only a Dark Panther with a Sentry remained. Ryo relaxed slightly. Now things would be easier for him. He drew his katana. He came to a crouch, aimed, and threw the blade.

It hit the robot piloting the Dark Panther. The devastator sparked dangerously, before erupting in a column of fire.

The robot in the sentry fired three blasts in Ryo's direction. But the mechanic rolled to safety before firing a row of green beams with his gun. The first beam went wide, but the other two hit the iron drone, chewing the armor to shreds, and frying the circuits, killing the engine.

With no one left protecting the code-brick, Ryo scrambled quickly, and dug his fist in the dirt. After what seemed like hours of digging (reality being two minutes), he dug out a glowing rectangular brick that had random numbers and letters on it.

"Got it!" he gasped. He raced out of the area and towards his Mini Rocket Speeder, mentally congratulating himself for his quick thinking, until he found a very disturbing sight.

His Mini Rocket Speeder was lying on its side, demolished. The patches of armor had been ripped off and torn to pieces. The canon had taken a heavy beating, having a huge gap in cylinder and the pod on which it rested on had been snapped in several pieces.

It was completely unusable.

Ryo face palmed. "I KNEW I should've taken my toolbox. Why the hell do I to keep on ignoring my instincts?"

He tried to roll the battle machine over, but gave up when he heard the fuel inside swish loudly, and in areas where it shouldn't be in the first place.

The engineer shook his head. "Better off not move it too much. The gas could touch wires and cause a spark and catch fire." There was a tiny 'clink' sound coming from behind him.

Ryo grabbed his blaster and spun around to stare at the evil face of…a squirrel. The furry creature was holding a piece of the speeder, and was hitting it on the ground repeatedly, trying to understand what it was.

Ryo relaxed and lowered his blaster. He placed the code-brick next to the wreckage and crouched in front of the squirrel. "Hey there little guy. How's life? You gotta jet-pack I can borrow?" he mentally whacked himself for talking to an animal, but he was hoping that the random words would give him an idea.

The squirrel looked at him with its giant black eyes, before continuing its investigation on the scrap metal.

Ryo watched in amusement for a moment.

Finally the squirrel had enough of the finding, bored that it wasn't responding, and began to walk towards the wreckage. Who knows? Maybe the bandana dude might have some nuts he could lend. It took a couple of steps, before stopping, ears twitching.

It chattered madly, before shooting up a tree like it had been stung by a hornet.

Ryo frowned. "Why would-?"

Something hit him on the back of the head. Hard.

"HEY!" he yelled, spinning around. Seeing no one, he looked down at what had been thrown. It was lying a good distance from the wreckage. Curiosity got the best of him. He walked towards it and picked it up.

"What is-?" he instantly shut up when he saw it was a timed bomb. "Aw shi-"

Everything within four square feet was blasted to bits. Ryo was sent flying across the air before crashing into a boulder. He screamed as pain surged through his veins, and the rattling of bones shook his muscles. He hit the boulder, bounced off the rock before smashing against the ground, burnt, injured, bleeding heavily, and pain throbbing through his limbs.

Ryo opened his eyes. "I…can't…move…" he whispered. He gasped in pain and wished he didn't. Pain surged through his skull. How in the world did he survive that explosion and collision?

He heard something walking towards him. A large black and purple leg landed in front of him. A Dark Panther. Something-most likely a robot-grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his face from the ground.

Ryo screamed in pain. He stared fearfully at the silver metallic grin and the blaring red eyes. "Where's the code-brick?"

Ryo looked at him, but was too weak to answer.

"WHERE IS IT!" the robot shook him violently.

Ryo gave another scream, before falling limp. The robot made a sort of hissing sound. "He fainted. Pathetic."

"Destroy him." An Iron Drone in a sentry ordered.

"No. He knows the location of the code-brick. We'll take him, and then give him a new definition of pain until he gives us its location."

The robot picked him up, and threw him in a Shadow Crawler's prison sphere. "Here's a free ride to your doom. Sorry about the lack of leather seats." It said.

The group started moving, and headed back towards the southern side of the mountain, quite proud of their catch. But little did they know how close they were to the code-brick.

* * *

Hikaru and Rika found themselves standing in the middle of Keiken's office, alone. After rapping the door, entering when they heard no response, they stood in an awkward silence, neither of them knowing what to say.

Finally, Rika tried to strike up a conversation. "So…uh…where's the code-brick?" she asked.

Hikaru shrugged. "A member of the team gave it to Keiken. After that, I don't know."

"What do you think it does?"

"Ask Ryo."

"Right." Another silence fell over them. "Where is he by the way? I haven't seen him all morning."

"I'm guessing he's with his battle machines in the lab. He loves them."

Rika blushed. "I'm so embarrassed." She muttered. "I have a younger brother who's in love battle machines."

Hikaru gave her a weird look. "Hey, it isn't that bad" He was blasted with a death glare. "Or is it?"

"Hikaru…we're twins. TWINS! Now everyone thinks that I'm the same!" She buried her face in her hands, before glaring at him. She stared at him intently, her eyes becoming more and more filled with irritation.

"WILL YOU TALK?" She ended up yelling. "CAN YOU ACTUALLY MAKE LONG SENTENSES, OR ARE YOU JUST PLAIN STUPID?"

Hikaru snapped his head back towards her, completely surprised. "Err…" Being a loner, he wasn't too sure how to strike up a conversation. "What do you want to know?"

Rika groaned. "Seriously. I mean you're more social with Takashi. TAKASHI! And you can barely stand one another!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, that was before." He ran a hand through his hair. "So what do you want to know?" he repeated.

Rika sighed. "I don't know, how about your life, you know, BEFORE the rebellion?" she spoke as though Hikaru didn't have a life before the event.

The aerial pilot rolled his eyes. "Fine. I was born in Canada, Ottawa. I spent most of my life there, before leaving the place to go America. There, I got the job of flying passenger planes from the US to Europe and way back."

Rika perked up. "Wait, you said you were testing machines right?"

Hikaru nodded. "That was later. When I got bored with the job, I had two choices. One was to enter the military, who was desperate to get a talented pilot, or to do the testing thing."

Rika face-palmed. "You worked in some place for a whole year, and you don't even know what it's called."

Hikaru reddened slightly. "It's not that I didn't know! It's just with the rebellion and all, it just slipped from my mind!"

Rika sighed. "Right. I'm supposed to believe that?" She rubbed her forehead. "You guys are impossible. I'm willing to bet that you don't even know your time tables."

Hikaru's face flared. "Of course I do! Who do you take me for? I'm not Takashi."

"All right, what seven time fourteen?"

"Easy it's…um…uh…"

Rika grinned evilly. "And there you have it."

"I KNOW THEM! There are just times you have to calm down and think about it." Hikaru stammered.

"The answer's ninety-eight." Rika immediately replied. "Though you deny it, you're as bad as Takashi."

"Takashi's a dork! I'm smarter than him!"

"Riiiiiiggggghhhhhhhht." Rika said fighting hard not to laugh. "Of what country is the city of Phnom Penh capital of?"

"THAT PLACE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! A PLACE WITH NO IMPORTANTCE!"

"And that place appears to be my home."

The two pilots turned to face Keiken who stood in the middle of the doorway, his eyes slightly narrowed, and feigning to be hurt. "I can understand that you two are enjoying your little game, which I find quite amusing, but we have important matters to discuss. Come with me." he turned and began to walk out. "Oh and Hikaru, Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. Not that Rika knew this in the first place, right my dear?"

Rika turned bright red. "I…uh…"

"I thought so. Now come on."

The two pilots walked silently out of the office, and followed their leader. Hikaru whispered to Rika: "Is it true that you didn't know the country?"

The girl shrugged. "I just thought it was something invented. I heard Ryo blabbing about it before…not too sure why."

* * *

Keiken stood in front of the Blade Titan, patiently waiting for Takashi to arrive. After leading the duo he found in his office here, where Ha-Ya-To was already located, feeling slightly out of place. Nevertheless, at the sight of the duo, he instantly returned to his joyful and playful self.

Keiken thought about starting, when he noticed Takashi running towards him, completely out of breath. "Sorry I'm late Sensei." he said. "I've looked everywhere, but I couldn't find Hitomi."

"That's all right. Hitomi knows about this." He faced the group. "All three of you, listen to me, I've got something important to tell you." He took a deep breath. "As we know, Meca One has been destroyed, and we have managed to stop the robot advance in the lower parts of the northern mountain. However, I've got a report that the robots have a small fortress in the surroundings of the Kokeih Bridge."

"Isn't that the bridge which is situated just below the Sentai Fortress?" Takashi asked. "I thought it was blasted to pieces during the battle against the Striking Venom."

Keiken nodded. "The robots have attacked at several places at once during the battle of the Striking Venom. Some smaller outposts, such as the Plitania and the Gerundia have been unable to withstand the momentum of the attack. It's how the robots entered the mountain. Now for the report I was talking about," the elder turned and grabbed a scroll from a table. He unrolled it, and smoothened it. "Come here." He ordered the pilots.

Ha-Ya-To peered over Keiken's shoulder. "Isn't that the map of that outpost…what was it called again? Sikera?"

"Shikara" Takashi corrected. "I used to work in the surroundings of that outpost before the rebellion." The ground-born pilot looked at his leader. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Keiken spoke. "I was coming to that. Now as Takashi correctly said, there is a mine near this outpost. The reason why I want to talk to you about this is because this outpost has become a strategic point for both us and the robots." He took out a map of the northern part of the mountain. He pointed to the lower right part of the map. "The outpost is situated around here. We are here. Now as you can see, Shikara has a bridge that is directly linked to the southern side of the mountain. The robots, surprisingly, do not use this passage for reinforcements, but they use it for the passage of prisoners, fuel and information."

"So you want us to take control of that base? But I don't understand. We already have numerous bridges that connect to the southern part of the mountain. And if it's not a bridge used for reinforcements, what's the point of capturing it. Sure it will bother the robots, but I don't think that it'll really damage them as much as you hope." Hikaru said.

Keiken smiled. "Clearly, you haven't been in those mines nor met the people living in the surroundings of the outpost." He said. He turned to the others. "As Hikaru intelligently said, there's no point in attacking the outpost if we just want to cut their fuel supply, but there's a little more. I mentioned a mine nearby remember? This mine, situated here," he pointed at a red dot a little above the position of the Shikara Fortress. "Has some minerals called Lythanium. Remember the Striking Venom ad the Mobile Devastator? Both Battle Machines had this special armor which cold endure any kind of damage inflicted by our guns. We analyzed the armor used, and found out that it was a thick coat of tenatium. But after retrieving some pieces of the destroyed battle machines, I figured out that there was more than just that. Placed just beneath the layer of tenatium, we found an old mineral used mostly by miners: Lythanium."

"Wait." Takashi said, beginning to see why Keiken was so interested in the outpost. "Knowing that most of the Lythanium is in the lower part of the Northern side of the mountain, and that there's a minority in the southern side, the robots purposely chose those areas to colonize in order to get better armor."

"Exactly." Keiken replied.

"And if we can cut most of their resources," Rika said, "they'll have to use their own, highly limited amount to keep going. And since we'll have a larger supply, we'll be able to use their own findings against them."

Keiken smiled. They were finally seeing the point. "And once the robot's supply of Lythanium has been exhausted, they'll have to return to use older minerals, such as Intractium, and more importantly, steel, the most basic of the metals."

"Okay." Ha-Ya-To said. "Now that we know why it's so important to snag this place, do we know how strong the troops are?"

"One of our spies has reported that there is a very large number of Shadow Crawlers and Storm Lashers."

Hikaru's eyes narrowed. "Our Jungle Battle Machines have been completely destroyed. Even with the huge updates given to our Golden City Battle Machines, do you think we'll be able to push them back?"

"Naturally," Keiken said, "you'll be escorted with a squadron of Golden Guardians, and Hitomi will go with you."

The dyed-blue haired boy shook his head. "But will it be enough?"

Keiken smiled. "You'll be surprised of the new updates Ryo has given to our beloved mechanics and to your battle machines."

"All right." Ha-Ya-To said. "Who's leading this battle?" he asked.

"Since he has more knowledge of the area, Takashi will lead the attack."

The former miner gaped. He had never been allowed to lead an expedition before. "R…really?"

Hikaru's face became a picture of horror. "S-Sensei! Takashi's not skilled to be a leader! He'll send us all to our doom! His only strategy is to charge!"

Takashi's face became three shades of red. "That's not true! I'm the one who figured out the Striking Venom's sole weakness!"

"That was about the only time when you decided to use your brain! There's no way I'm gonna let you lead!"

The two heroes were so engrossed in their argument, that they were completely oblivious to the fact that several engineers and pilots stare at them in both confusion and amusement.

Rika walked towards the red-head. "Do you think we should stop them?"

Ha-Ya-To took a deep breath, before walking straight towards the two. He pushed his way in between them, and yelled dramatically; "Gentlemen, gentlemen, please keep your flirting for bedtime!"

Hikaru made a quick scream, and practically tripped over himself, before scrambling madly away.

Takashi yelped, and shot up a battle machine's leg, and held on to it as though his life depended on it.

The entire lab exploded in laughter. Hikaru flushed fiercely, desperately thinking of a way to protect the remains of his pride, while Takashi realized what he had done, and was climbing down the battle machine's leg, his face as red as a tomato.

Keiken, smiling hugely at the boys' antics, walked towards them. "As you smartly said Hikaru, Takashi will lead this operation. Rika, however, will make sure that he doesn't stay with his…traditional, strategy."

"SAY WHAT?" Takashi yelled.

More sniggering from everyone around them.

Keiken waited for their unofficial audience around them to be quiet. "I said, Rika will make sure you will not risk the entire operation for nothing."

Takashi relaxed slightly. "I thought she was going to do the leading instead." He sighed. "All right. When do we leave?"

"As soon as you're done flirting."

"HA-YA-TO!"

* * *

Ryo weakily opened his eyes. The first thing that met his eyes was a color.

Green.

Everything was green.

Ryo blinked weakly. Did his eyesight fail him? He tried to look at himself.

Pain exploded through his body, making him want to scream. But he was too weak to do so. He tried to move. His body did not respond. All he knew was that he was lying in a spherical room.

Panic began bubbling inside him. What was going on? He wasn't dead, right? He remembered looking for a code, then the robots caught him…

The robots…

Green…robots…sphere…

He must be in a Shadow Crawler or something. He tried to focus his eyes on an object. He was slightly successful, as he noticed some figures move just outside the sphere. What were they doing?  
His eyesight became fuzzy again.

Knowing that it was useless to insist on his eyes, he screwed them shut, and focused on his ears.

Banging, some orders were given, words were exchanged. But most of it was blurred by the glass of his green prison.

Footsteps.

Something was coming his way.

Ryo fought to control the panic inside him. He knew it was useless to either panic or resist: he was too weak to do anything.

He heard a mechanical voice speak. Though it was loud and close to him, the glass still blocked out a part of what was said.  
"…found…no…brick…inform…esting."

There was a heavy pause. Ryo strained to try to hear a reply. His wishes were finally granted. Another voice was heard. But this one was no mechanical. Ryo's blood went cold. Was it really-

"Activ…sli…sequen…now."

-A human? Ryo's mind went wild. Was it a traitor? Why did the robots let him live? Who is he? And why…and why is his voice so familiar?

There was a loud, gross some gurgling sound.

Ryo opened his eyes.

Some green slimly liquid had begun entering the sphere. It was slowly-very slowly-filling up the sphere. Ryo touched it. There was a loud sizzling sound, and Ryo gritted his teeth as he felt the fabric of the glove begin to dissolve.

Memoric Fradia Acid. Robots used it to drain the humans of their memories and kill them slowly and painfully.

Ryo closed his eyes. Tears began crawl down his cheeks.

He was going to die.

* * *

"This is the last time I listen to you Ha-Ya-To." Hitomi snapped.

The red-head's face was brilliant red with embarrassment. "Hey, I didn't-"

"_YOU _told me to give you the map, _YOU_ said that you've got the compass, _YOU _said you knew this place inside out, and now, I figure out that _YOU_ have the worst sense of orientation in the entire mountain!"

Ha-Ya-To winced. "Look, I said I was sorry. And we're buddies right? You should know about my serious lack of orientation. Now instead of yelling, can you help me figure out where the hell we are?"

Hitomi face-palmed. A whole squadron, her Ha-YA-To, Rika and Hikaru, led by Takashi was supposed to capture a small outpost in the lower parts of the mountain.

After an attack from the robots, she and Ha-Ya-To had been separated from the group, and were trying to find their way to the outpost on their own.

Ha-Ya-To insisted to guide her towards the area with his 'incredible eagle eyesight' like he called it, and had taken the compass and the map.

Now, thirty minutes later, the two of them were hopelessly lost. It turned out that Ha-Ya-To actually had the worst sense of direction in existence.

Needless to say, Hitomi was (slightly) pissed off. For all they knew, they were in the surroundings to the Sentai Fortress-but she hadn't forgotten that Ha-Ya-To had no idea where was north (he sometimes said he mistaken the smaller side of the mountain for being the north. But Hitomi was pretty sure he was just pulling her leg).

Trying to control her anger, she activated the Blazing Falcon's GPS, only to find it broken. Mentally cursing herself to be so badly prepared for the moment, she paid more attention to the radar screen.

There was a red dot blinking. "Ha-Ya-To." she warned. "There's something ahead."

The aerial pilot immediately stopped messing with the map, and grabbed the Aero-Booster's controls, ready for battle.

Ha-Ya-To activated the boosters, and took flight. He scanned the ground safely from the sky.

"See anything?" Hitmoi asked.

"NO!" Ha-Ya-To yelled. Hitomi saw the Aero-Booster make a wild dive towards the ground. It disappeared completely from sight.

"Ha-Ya-To?" Hitomi asked.

No answer.

The female pilot sighed. "I'm going to kill him" With that, she took off and followed the Aero-Booster. She piloted her battle machine up the hill, until she gasped at what lay in front of her.

Ha-Ya-To was crouching near the remains of the Mini Rocket Speeder.

Hitomi raced towards him, her face very pale. "No way…it's impossible…" she whispered.

She watched as her friend rolled the destroyed battle machine on its side. Ha-Ya-To grunted at the effort. "Hitomi." He said.

The raven-black haired girl simply watched the rocket speeder, not noticing the fact that he had spoken.

"HITOMI!"

That snapped her out of her trance. "Y-yes?"

"There's a glowing patch here. Can you check it out? I've got my hands full trying to-ouch-hold this thing"

Hitomi looked around to where Ha-Ya-To was standing, and noticed the glowing patch. She knelt down and swiped the dirt. She gasped. "It's a code-brick!"

Ha-Ya-To looked confused. "What's it doing here?" he asked. "Did the pilot hide it here before walking away?"

Hitomi thought. "Ryo wouldn't just leave something this important behind like this for no reason. He was probably attacked by robots. But why did he hide the code-brick here? It isn't the smartest place."

Ha-Ya-To gave the destroyed speeder a shove, causing it to roll on its back. "Whatever the reason, Ryo has obviously been attacked. Let's just pocket this thing and go find him."

Hitomi nodded. Holding the code-brick tightly, she climbed back into her Blazing Falcon. After kicking the controls into life, she instantly activated the comm. System. "Hikaru, do you read me?"

The famous pilot appeared on the small screen. "What's up?" he asked.

"We found the remains of the Mini Rocket Speeder. Ryo has been attacked. We got the code-brick, but Ryo isn't around. Where do you think he is?"

The pilot thought carefully. "What are your coordinates?"

Hitomi looked on the map, and gave them to him.

Hikaru looked perplexed. "Well you're in the surroundings of the Sentai Fortress, and coincidently relatively close to the Shikara Outpost. Knowing the Robots, they'd probably drain Ryo of his memories. So it's more likely that he's already at the outpost."

"Got it. Um…the outpost is in which direction?"

Hikaru looked slightly confused. "Don't you have a map?"

"Ha-Ya-To has-"

"Oh right, you're Mr. I-Don't-Know-Where-I-Am." Hikaru interrupted. "It's just south east from your position."

"Got it. Thanks."

"No prob. See you down there."

Hitomi switched the comm. System off. "Ha-Ya-To, give me the compass now. Or else…"

"Or else what?"

"Or else I'll use you as a target practice. In real life."

Ha-Ya-To tossed her the tool. "I hope you know how to use this too."  
Ignoring the comment, Hitomi proceeded into finding the south-eastern direction. "This way."

* * *

Takashi grinned evilly. "All right. Are you all in position?" he asked in the mike. Hearing a chorus of 'yes', he raised his gun. "CHHHAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGEEEE E!"

There was a loud roar, and seven Golden Guardians emerged from the forest, blasting away at the robot outpost.

Taken completely by surprise, the robots had little time to react. Those closest to the battle machines raced into them in order to fight back, and the remaining robots desperately tried to find ways to escape the huge green beams.

Despite the fact that the robots had been ambushed, some were already in their battle machines.

Four Shadow Crawlers, along with two Thunder Furies blazed away at the charging humans. From the skies, three Storm Lashers soared from the clouds and fired their weapons.

For a second, the humans were stopped. Protecting themselves with their shields they fired at the enemy units.

Takashi grabbed the mike, his battle machine hiding safely behind his Bladed Shield. "Hikaru! Are you and the others ready?"

"Yeah."

"FIRE!"

There was a short pause, and green beams began raining from the skies. Several of them smashing right through the Storm Lashers' bladed turbines. Some missed completely, but either way, the robots were once again taken by surprise.

The three Storm Lashers, their engines blown, spiraled to the ground, before igniting in a huge explosion.

The Blazing Falcon, The Aero Booster and the Sky Guardian lowered themselves from the clouds.

There was another huge cheer, and the Golden Guardians, led by Takashi's Blade Titan, raced into the outpost.

The robots fought mercilessly, but it was obvious that they were fighting a losing battle. The Two Thunder Furies fired all their weapons at a Golden Guardian. The red and white battle machine was stopped in its tracks when the volley of firepower hit it. The Golden Guardian sparked irregularly, and was unable to defend itself properly.

The pilot panicked, raising his shield to defend himself, he forgot he was pulling the trigger of his battle machine.

The canon fired a huge stream of green energy, which destroyed a small control tower, which fell over, crushing the two Thunder Furies. The pilot watched the remains of the enemy battle machines, trying to register what exactly happened.

"Hey! Red seven, are you all right?" someone asked

The pilot shook his head. "Uhhh, yeah I think so."

"Nice shot there. Keep it up. And don't throw yourself in suicidal attacks like you just did."

"Yes blue two. Thanks."

* * *

As the humans crushed the remaining robot resistance, Hitomi raced inside the prisoner cell, her Blazing Falcon's lights illuminating the interior.

"Ryo…Ryo…where are you?" she muttered as empty green spheres raced past her.

Two blasts hit the upper right side of the Blazing Falcon. Hitomi noticed two Iron Drones firing at her with their bazookas, trying to protect a prisoner pod.

Hitomi saw someone inside, slowly sinking in the thick liquid used. Ryo.

She felt her heart race. She knew that the Blazing Falcon could easily withstand the blasts of the bazookas, but if they hit the cockpit, she might not make it.

Knowing that the blasts of her battle machine could injure the poor engineer, she opened the cockpit and grabbed a blaster. She fired four shots.

The first three went right through the Iron Drones, destroying them both instantly. The last one hit the prisoner's pod, shattering it.

Without missing a beat, Hitomi climbed out of the Blazing Flacon, and raced towards the pod. Drawing her Katana, she slashed the glass, breaking it, and releasing both the liquid and Ryo.

Dropping her weapon, she knelt down, and held the engineer close to her. "Ryo! Ryo! Come on snap out of it!" She yelled, gently shaking him.

Ryo opened his eyes weakily. "Hit…omi…" he croaked weakily. He managed to push himself to her height. "Beware…" he whispered. "There is a trai…" he gasped, coughed, before falling limp in her arms.

**^^ I'm proud with what I've written. I hope you've enjoyed it too.**

**Hikaru's Canadian? I dunno. Lol. I just see him being one. Either that, or I'm mad (which I probably already am).**

**I've noticed that Takashi is always standing in the middle of the group, but is not the leader. So I decided to change that as putting him in charge of the operation. ^^ I really see this argument taking place.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry guys for the lack of updating, but you have no idea how much time school is taking up! And we're at the dumb area from 8 to 6, so all my day is busy with wirking, not to mention the huge amount of tests the school keeps tossing us.**

**I want to thank PixelJam for being so patient with my writing, so THANK YOU! And for all exo-force fans, she is currently writing her own fanfiction on Exo-Force. AND IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! YOU GUYS GOTTA READ IT! **

**I also need to finish a chapter for War of Weyard. So I'll take even more time to write, since I've got more stuff to do.**

**ON WITH THE STORY**

An iron drone entered a dark room. After reaching the center of the room, it stopped and knelt down low. "Master, the Shikara Outpost has been taken by the humans. We were forced to retreat due to an ambush by the inferior race." it said in its metallic and scrappy voice.

A figure, humanoid, cloaked in black, marched silently and majestically towards the robot. The robot allowed itself to look up; for this was the first time he got to see his new leader.

The leader was huge, larger than Meca One. It may not have a rough cover, but its authority, short temper, and intelligence highly over passed the golden robot.

The iron drone's red eyes scanned up to look at the head. It was impossible for it to identify its features, for a white and black mask covered them.

Finally, the leader moved: an arm was raised and pointed at the robot. "Take a group of Dark Panthers to the Girghana Fortress. Then, send three squadrons to the remains of the Sentai Fortress. We will hold our ground there."

"Finally, send three Thunder Furies and Fire Vultures to destroy the village of Kikena. There will be no survivors. Now go."

The iron drone bowed low again, its circuits whirring, classifying the orders in most to least important in its memory banks. "Understood." it said. It marched out of the room, leaving the leader alone in the room.

The leader backed back safely into the darkness of the room. It looked out the large window and glared at the northern side of the mountain, illuminated by the sun. The leader hissed. "Everything is going as planned. Three more weeks and the Exo-Force teams will fall." the figure promised itself. "And soon, me and him…together we will rule over humanity together. Just as it was meant to be."

* * *

Takashi slammed the door so hard it cracked on its hinges. "RYO!" the pilot yelled, running madly towards a certain bed. He met up with Hitomi and Ha-Ya-To who were sitting in front of a large glass.

"How is he?" Takashi asked. He stared through the window too see the sleeping techie and a medic speaking to Keiken.

Ha-Ya-To shrugged. "He's alive and his injuries are far from deadly. That much I know."

In the room, the two adults finished talking and left the room. When they closed the door to Ryo's room, did the three pilots dive on them.

"Sensei, what's going on?"

"Will he be ok?"

"What are his injuries?"

Keiken pushed them gently away. "I'll explain in a moment." he turned to the medic. "Keep a close watch on him. Try to heal him as efficiently and as fast as possible." the medic nodded, before walking briskly away. The old man turned back to the trio. "Ryo is covered with second degree burns. His mind has not been damaged and his memories are also in one piece. Hitomi saved him in time and the acid had not yet been able to penetrate the skin and attack the muscles either. He'll recover with rest."

The trio all had different reactions. Takashi leaned back against the wall, sighing in relief, Hitomi collapsed in a chair, covering her face with her hands, trying to calm herself down, while Ha-Ya-To threw his arms in the air and cheered.

"Well that's good to know." Ha-Ya-To said. "I'll take the first watch. You two, go do something useful"

* * *

Hikaru sighed. The Outpost was finally under their control. He had taken over as leader and was busy clearing the area of all the robots they could find.

He pressed a button on the Sky Guardian's controls. The blue and white battle machine hummed, showing that then energy was being properly compensated.

"Ready everyone?" he asked to the Grand Titan and the two Uplinks who were with him. He was acknowledged with a chorus of 'yes'. "All rockets fired."

The four battle machines fired all their missiles at the entrance of the cave where a small group of robots had hidden in.

The cave exploded in a cloud of complete destruction. Boulders collapsed, and the metal grinders that have been installed fell over like dead trees, before adding to the explosions.

Hikaru heard the electronic scream and the barking of orders from the robots in the inside. He stared at the computer. The scopes went black.

He nodded. The place was cleared. "Everyone, return to the Outpost."

Ever since he heard that Ryo was found, injured and unconscious, the aerial pilot had only one wanting: to go and check on his friend. But his duty to destroy and deactivate all the robots in the area was much more important.

The four pilots walked back to the Shikara Outpost, which was now buzzing with activity, as the engineers and pilots tried to fix the damage and drain the computers of their data before the robots could attempt to destroy or retrieve them.

Guarded by a whole platoon of Stealth Hunters and Golden Guardians the base was completely under the human control. But their position was still vulnerable. And the humans wanted to grab as much resources as they could in case the robots returned.

"Hikaru?"

The pilot turned to see the Blade Titan walking towards him. "Takashi? Shouldn't you be at the GoldenCity?"

"I know you're dying to see Ryo. Go on ahead. I'll take over." The ground-born pilot gestured at the beam of light being emanated by the GoldenTower with his head. "Go. Ryo's sleeping and apparently he'll be all right."

Hikaru hesitated. "Who told you that you could take over my job? Did Sensei say so?" He asked uncertainly.

Takashi deadpanned at him. "I'm the leader of the expedition. Screw Sensei and his rules. Go before I blast you to the city."

Hikaru grinned, his bad mood disappearing quickly. "Thanks buddy." He piloted the Sky Guardian upwards, and flew to the city

* * *

_Light._

_Blinding white light._

_It came from everywhere and yet from nowhere._

_Ryo stood still in this huge area, where even the horizon was blinded in the light. "Where am I…?"_

_There was a ripple in the light. A thin line of darkness coming his way…_

_Suddenly, pain exploded through his body. Ryo screamed and doubled over in agony. What was happening? What was this? Where was here?_

_"Come…" a voice whispered._

_Ryo looked up. He saw something. In this whiteness, he saw a tiny black figure in the distance. He tried to stand, only to collapsed back on his knees in pain. He opened his mouth, but the voice spoke to him again._

_"Live as it was meant to be…"_

_Ryo felt fear surge through him amplifying his pain. Fear blinded his mind. "NO!"_

_"Then fall…" the figure began to move closer. Ryo squinted to see what it was._

_Its movements were accelerated. It was coming faster. Waving its limbs in all directions, it ran faster. So fast that Ryo knew that if he didn't move _NOW_ he wouldn't make it._

_He tried moving, but his body felt like zaylium-reinforced steel._

_The figure was only a few feet away. It ran faster._

_And faster._

_It was only a few feet away. Ryo braced himself._

_Then the figure opened its mouth._

_It gave the most painful and loudest blood thirstiest shriek ever._

_Ryo screamed as the figure rammed into him just as everything went dark._

* * *

Ryo gave a huge gasp, and his eyes snapped open.

"You're awake!" he heard someone say in relief.

Two gloved hands reached over him and took off what seemed to be an oxygen mask. Ryo turned and stared weakly at the smiling face of Hitomi. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Panicking slightly, he tried to speak again, this time succeeding to make a sound. "I…robots…"

Hitomi placed a hand on his forehead. "Sssh." She said. "Calm down. Everything's fine."

Ryo nodded before lying back down again. He tried to speak again, but there was a loud banging.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?" Rika yelled as she stormed towards the bed.

Ryo's mind went wild as his sense of paranoia shot skywards as he began to think of all the horrors his sister was about to do to him.

However, she did something he clearly did not expect. She grabbed him, forced him to sit until he was at the same height as her, and gave a bone-crushing hug. "You idiot…you have no idea how worried I was…" she whispered. She then dumped him right back into the bed. "You are not getting out of this unscathed kid." She whispered coldly, her brown eyes piercing his. She turned to Hitomi. "Make sure he doesn't leave the place." She ordered, before turning and storming right out of the room.

Ryo stared at the doorway, before turning back to face the ceiling. He opened his mouth, to say something, but exhaustion began to grip him harder than before.

Hitomi must've noticed it, since she carefully placed the oxygen mask back over his face, and said something, which Ryo failed to catch.

He closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To entered the medical bay. He found Hitomi strapping the oxygen mask on Ryo's face. "How is he?" he asked. "I ran into Rika. She was kinda pissed off. Did something happen?"

Hitomi smiled at the red-head. "You just missed him. He woke up for a moment there."

Ha-Ya-To placed his hand over his heart, feigning hurt. "He falls right back to sleep when I arrive…does really no one care for me in this world?" he said dramatically.

Hitomi rolled her eyes. "What did Rika say when she walked past you?" she asked, feeling slightly concerned for the older twin.

"Oh just the usual, get-out-of-the-way-before-I-castrate-you. Why?"

The girl sighed. She got up. "Keep an eye on him for me please. If just before he wakes up, take off his oxygen mask. Or else it could damage his lungs."

"And how do I know when he'll wake up?"

"When the blood pressure begins to rise, take it off." Hitomi got up and walked away.

Ha-Ya-To took her place on the chair. "What an awesome day!" he said cheerfully. "First I get to blast robots, then I get to blow up the remains of a bridge, and now I got to babysit my best friend." He stretched his limbs and relaxed on his chair. He remembered something. "AND I managed to get some awesome blackmail material…yeah; this is the best day ever."

* * *

Rika stormed down the hallway, trying to find an effective way to punish Ryo for nearly getting himself killed.  
She had almost crashed into Ha-Ya-To earlier as he came to check out on her brother. After pushing him out of the way relatively violently, and giving him the best death glare she could muster, she continued storming down the hallway.

She did feel kind of bad for the pilot, but she didn't want to show it. She was a member of the Exo-Force team, and more importantly a girl. She could not allow herself to act weak, caring and all that. It will only lead to problems. Problems that she might not want to face…

"Rika…"

She has to stay strong for her sake. Besides, her brother needs her to be tough. He's still just a boy. Sure he's capable of defeating hordes of robots, destroying the strongest of battle machines and saving the world.

"Rika?"

But he's still a kid. He's too kind. And if poked in the right area, he can easily break. No matter how hard he fights back, how intelligently he twists situations to his benefit and how strong he may look, he could easily-

"RIKA!"

She suddenly became acutely aware of two hands gripping her shoulders and pulling her backwards. Rika was about to resist, when she noticed that the same person had saved her from walking right into a wall.

So much for trying to keep tough.

Rika turned to face the concerned features of Hikaru. She allowed his hands to pull her backwards and away from the wall. "What are you doing here? I thought you were down at the Shikara Outpost."

"Takashi took my place. Why?"

"Just curious."

An awkward silence fell over them. "Um…thanks for sav-uhhhh-keeping me from running into the wall." Rika muttered.

Hikaru shrugged like it was no big deal. "You okay? You look a bit upset"

Rika sighed. "Anyone who has a brother in the hospital bed would be." She muttered. Hikaru was the only person she dared to open up to. She just felt…comfortable with him. No decent explanation. She just did. "I'm worried…" she mentally berated herself. She wasn't worried. She was TERRIFIED. She didn't want to lose Ryo like she lost her parents. She didn't…

The next thing she knew, Hikaru had gently grabbed her and pulled her in an awkward hug. "He'll be fine. He's stronger than you give him credit for." Hikaru whispered.

The two of them remained in the embrace for a moment, neither of them wanting to break the moment.

"Rika? You there? I wanted to-WOAH!" Hitomi yelped when she saw the two pilots holding one another.

Hikaru and Rika instantly tore apart from one another, both of them beet red.

"I…uh…" Hikaru shot down the corridor like hell, almost knocking Hitomi off her feet in the process.

The female pilot turned back to Rika "D-"

"WE ARE NOT!" Rika screamed so loudly and venomously that Hitomi was almost blown back.

"Okay, okay!" Hitomi squeaked. "My lips are sealed."

Rika managed to get her blush under control. "Why did you follow me anyway?" she asked.  
"I wanted to know if you'd be alright. You were a little upset about Ryo. I thought you'd want a bit of girl company."

Rika grinned. "Yeah why not."

* * *

Takashi stood in the middle of the bridge that connected the Shikara Outpost to the southern side of the mountain.

The team had managed to create a somewhat decent defensive squad. Normally, with the new recruits in the next few days, the Exo-Force team would be reinforced. Until then, Takashi had gotten the permission to remain at the Outpost to aid the other pilots to repel any robot attacks-if any were to come.

Takashi had chosen to go on patrol alone. There were two things he wanted to do. The first one was to visit the remains of the mine in which he used to work in. It brought him a wave of nostalgia when he thought of the number of people who died in the battle for the mountain, just before it was split.

Now, safely seated in his Blade Titan, he watched the carcass of the Supernova.

The pilot sighed. As much as he saw these things as machines, he did feel a small connection to them. He had been so happy to have such a powerful battle machine, and when he had learnt that it had been blown off the bridge, it hurt him.

Takashi looked back up at the looming southern mountain of metal, smoke and artificial lights. Strange…he remembered the place being much darker, giving him a chill whenever he looked at it.

Takashi sighed. He must've gotten over it. It has been three years since he joined the Exo-Force. He must've gotten used to the sight.

He rolled his shoulders. The Blade Titan whirred as it imitated his movements. Takashi looked at his left arm in surprise. He had forgotten that the movements of the battle machine followed his.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Be-_

Takashi pressed a button on the control board, switching the irritating sound off. "Hey." He said in a bored tone. "I'm on the bridge. Nothing to report. I'll be staying for little longer. Don't ask." No need to ask who was calling and why. He was smarter than some pilots gave him credit for.

"Um…okay…see ya." The pilot answered awkwardly, clearly not expecting such a response.

Takashi sighed.

He stepped over the Supernova, careful not to touch it, and stared back at the robot's side of the mountain.

God he was bored…

Glimmers of an idea began to form.

Takashi looked back at the Shikara Outpost. No one would mind right? He rarely got to play like this. And the pilots weren't idiots. They knew how to handle themselves.

But what if…

Takashi stared at the southern side of the mountain.

All these beautiful metal plates…all waiting to be busted…surely no one would mind right? Just three shots?

Takashi took a deep breath. "BANZAI TIME!" he yelled at the top of his voice, firing his guns at a random area of the robot base.

The area exploded, sending spieces of melted metal in all directions.

Takashi watched as the debris fell onto the bridge. He suddenly realized in horror that something was wrong.

The robots weren't responding.

Either they were ignoring him, or they were just too stupid to realize that they were being shot at.

An iron drone fell out of the hole he had just caused and hit the ground in front of the red battle machine, resulting in the robot being pulverized in pieces.

Takashi looked up. He noticed another Iron drone peering out of the hole. Takashi swore he heard it say, 'Oh well'.

Anger boiled in him.

They were totally ignoring him.

"HEY YOU BOLT FOR BRAINS! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" Takashi yelled, firing a number of blasts which hit the side of the mountain, causing similar explosions to the previous one.

"You're welcome to stop. Scopes say that robot activity is higher up the mountain. You're wasting your energy AND your time."  
Takashi blinked in surprise at the comm. System. Didn't he turn that thing off?

"Takashi, did you hear me? You're 'Banzai time' is over."

Takashi felt heat grow in his face. "Yes. I'm…uh…coming back in."

"Good." With that, the person on the other side of the line snapped the system off.

Takashi sighed. "Just because I'm out doesn't mean I'm not allowed to know that Sensei has arrived."

And with that, the boy piloted his battle machine back towards the Shikara Outpost.

* * *

Ryo rolled over. "Ha-Ya-To, I'm fine. Really, I don't feel any pain and I move. See?" He sat up to prove his point.

The red head grinned at him. "I know. The sole reason why I'm keeping you here is because I don't want to suffer Hitomi's wrath again."

Ro collapsed back down on his pillow. "How long was I out?"

"Well judging that I arrived right after you did, I'd say about ten-fifteen minutes. Why?" Ha-Ya-To asked, grabbing a banana from a bowl of fruit, peeling it and biting in it.

"Because I wanna play with Cyclone Defense and finish Golden Angel."

Ha-Ya-To tilted his head and stopped in mid-chew. "Golden Angel?"

"A new battle machine I'm coming up with. Sister of the Golden Guardian. It shares the same amount of fire power, but instead of having loads of armor, it relies a lot on speed."

"Oh…who will pilot it?"

"Dunno. I surely will. And if I do, I'll make sure to fusion Uplink and Cyclone Defender with it." Ryo said cheerfully. "But to do that, I'll have to take the Power Converter out of the carrial case, and connect the phonic…" he looked at the green-eyed boy who was looking quite lost. Instead of trying to help, he stretched out an arm. "Pass me a notepad and a pen please."

The pilot obliged. "Would-"

There was the sound of the door being yanked open, before swinging back and being slammed again.

The two pilots stared in confusion at the beet-red, scared looking Hikaru. The boy, still in complete shock, didn't, exactly what you can call, noticed them, and slid to the floor, his back still against the door. "Oh…my…god…that…" he fell silent, as though reviewing a moment that just took place, a dreamy look on his face.

Ha-Ya-To coughed awkwardly. "Did the robots throw three Sticking Venoms and a legion of Devastators at us, or did you just clog the toilet?"

That somehow snapped Hikaru out of his trance. The poor boy turned three shades of red and sat bolt upright, before climbing quickly to his feet. "Huh? Wha? How did you two get here?"

"Front door."

Ryo was more concerned about the way his unofficial leader had just acted. "Say Hikaru, what happened?"

Once the first time in his life, Hikaru wished that the robots would attack them. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Doesn't look like it." Ryo stated. "You never act like this. What are you hiding from us?"

Hikaru realized that he had an opening: he was still strategically placed with the door against his back. Without wasting a minute, he yanked the door open, and bolted down the corridor

"?Ha-Ya-To turned to Ryo, grinning. "I say we look deeper into this. Got any theories that can help

Ryo couldn't help but laugh.


	4. Chapter 4

**ALL RIGHT PEOPLE! CHAPTER 4 IS OUT! SORRY TO HAVE TAKEN A WHILE, BUT NOW WITH THE VACATION COMING UP, WE CAN ROCK N ROLL!**

This chapter is mostly focused on the emotions of the characters. I hope you all enjoy it.

**AND MAKE SURE TO VISIT PIXELJAM'S ACCOUNT! EPIC EXO-FORCE STORY BEING PUBLISHED! NOT KIDDING AT ALL! Seriosuly, just reading her thing made my day.**

**LET'S GET GOING!**

**Btw, I've got some computer problems. I publishing the chapter like this so it is easier to read. Punctuation problems. Sorry guys. I'll fix it up ASAP!**

Keiken listened to the young pilot who was busy giving his report on the battle for the Shikara Outpost. Once the boy had finished speaking, Keiken gave the orders. "Start collecting all the Lythanium resources that remain in the mines and in the Outpost. Once that is done, send them all to the Golden City so we can change the Battle Machine's current armor. Tell the mechanics to start with the Grand Titans and the Stealth Hunters." Keiken thought for a moment. "Are you positive that there are no more robots around her?"e

The pilot nodded. "We've scanned three square miles. The sensors notice nothing out of the ordinary. And mines with some activity are under constant and heavy watch. At the very worst, if the robots attacked, we'll lose a Golden Guardian or three Stealth Hunters

"Hmm…" Keiken answered absently. Golden Guardian or Stealth Hunter, replacing it would prove to be extremely difficult. Gold and Zaylium were cheap and easily affordable, but the platinum and the construction of another magnetized oroniate and a titanium reinforced blast shield were going to be extremely expensive.

And with the economic crisis growing, and the current price of fuel, this would make things even more difficult.

However, it was out of the question to leave those robots unwatched

Keiken turned back to the pilot. "Very well. It appears we have no choice. Keep the area well protected and evacuate all villages that are in the perimeter of this Outpost. The robots will not have given up such an important place without a surge of revenge. Take three other pilots with you and take the inhabitants of the Karihito village to safety. You're in charge of this mission"

"Y-yes sir." The pilot beamed.

Keiken knew that he was a new pilot who was both ambitious and was eager to be the best of his team and if Exo-Force.

"Go. If there are any robots, warn us so we can call backup just in case."

The pilot made a salute and shot towards his battle machine and two of his friends like mad to spread the news.

Keiken turned and was about to walk away when he noticed Ha-Ya-To running towards him. "Ha-Ya-To! What are you doing here?"

The red-head stopped in front of him, paused a moment to catch her breath, before speaking. "Sensei, Ryo's waken up. He's a bit dizzy but he'll be alright." The pilot said. "And I wanted to ask…"

"Yes?"

"Can I go see the recruits? There's someone I want to meet…" Keiken stared at one of his best pupils.

"Does this have to do with trying to impress the teenagers, flirt with the girls or just a simple attempt to scare the whole center with a huge prank?" the elder asked. He had noticed that Ha-Ya-To had started visiting the recruits more and more frequently. Though the boy had denied doing anything wrong, Keiken was pretty sure that he had something planned up his sleeve.

Ha-Ya-To feigned hurt. "Me? Scare people? Does my own leader have any trust in me?"

"Around the recruits? No."

Ha-Ya-To thought that he was joking, but when he saw the deadpanned look on the leader's face, he realized how serious Keiken was actually taking the situation. "Uh…Sensei?"

"The answer is no. If you want to see the recruits, you'll do it when me or Takashi are present."

Ha-Ya-To was ready to protest but he instantly shut up when he remembered the punishment Rika went through for arguing. He, the legendary Exo-Force pilot, was NOT going to peel potatoes for three weeks straight. He sighed in disappointment. "Yes Sensei."

"Good. If you're bored than you can go on patrol. The surroundings of this base are probably full of robots ready to strike back. Now go."

Ha-Ya-To, knowing that the suggestion was more of an order, turned and walked towards his Aero Booster in disappointment.

Keiken watched him. "Good." He took out a talkie walkie. "Hikaru, do you read me?"

There was a moment of static, before the pilot answered back. "I read you Sensei."

"Hikaru take Takashi and Hitomi with you and get down to the Shikara Outpost. I want the ships carrying the Lythanium to be guarded, and I can't send any troops from here: our position is still vulnerable to attacks. How is our technician?"

"Ryo? He's fine. He's gotten over the acid a lot faster than we had anticipated. We…uh…rebooted his systems. Hitomi is keeping an eye on him. He doesn't want to stay in bed to rest…"

Keiken pictured his granddaughter tying the poor engineer to the bed. The thought of it made him smirk. "Very well, let him out of bed. Send him to his labs. I want him to-"

"THANK YOU SENSEI!"

Keiken closed his eyes to endure the pain that surged through his ear. Ryo seemed to be quite energetic after all. He allowed himself a moment of entertainment as he heard some shouting on the other side of the line, followed by a loud slam, and a girl shouting: "GO GET'IM BOYS AND BRING HIM BACK ALIVE!" and the door slamming once again.

An awkward silence fell over the line. "Umm…Sensei? You still there?"

"Yes I am Hikaru. I must say, I find you and your friends' actions quite amusing. I presume that this was my granddaughter?"

"Yeah…sorry about that."

"No need. Just deliver the orders. I want you three down here within an hour. And Hikaru?"

"Yes Sensei?"

"Tell Takashi to keep an eye on Ha-Ya-To. He seems to have grown a little too close the recruits for comfort."

"Yes Sensei."

Keiken ended the call and sighed. "I'm in charge of a bunch of children. And these children are what have been keeping the world safe." He looked up to see the Aero Booster playfully race two Stealth Hunters, before easily distancing them and disappearing behind the mountain.

The two pilots of the Stealth Hunters landed, laughing as they watched the area where Ha-Ya-To had disappeared.

Keiken smiled. At least the moral was high.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To pouted as he landed the Aero Booster in the city of Yellus. It was a small city, more of a town really, but it had proven to be useful at several moments such as an area for refuelling and reloading the battle machines' guns.

"Really...why can't I just go and see them? I mean, I'm not THAT evil. And I don't scare the recruits. Or at least I don't think I do..." He saw one of the mechanics approach him. Ha-Ya-To reached out in his pocket, and pulled out seven dollars. "Extra ten if you refuel her completely." He said.

The mechanic beamed. No one ever gave him that much as a tip. "Y-yes!" he instantly went to work, opening the fuel hatch and pouring the fuel in the gas compartment.

Ha-Ya-To leaned against one of the engines of the Aero Booster. "Oh well. At least I get to see the sights. And I get to sign a couple of autographs. No robots ever come around here. It's too deep in the mountain." He smiled as he noticed a bunch of children wearing Exo-Force uniform and robot costumes running in circles trying to catch one another.

"E-excuse me?"

Ha-Ya-To turned to the owner of the voice. It belonged to a girl who was staring at him with large brown eyes. She was attractive, about sixteen years old, brunette. Behind her stood two other girls who were giggling quietly to one another, taking quick peeks at him.

He focused back at the girl in front of him and decided to set his 'irresistibly sexy' mode to on. He gave her a grin. "Yes? Can I help you?"

The teen reddened slightly. "Yes...um..." she suddenly pushed a pen and pad in the pilot's hands. "CAN I HAVE AN AUTOGRAPH PLEASE?"

Ha-Ya-To laughed. "Of course." He quickly signed the pad and handed it to her. Before she could say something, he said "One cannot refuse such a simple offer from such a beautiful lady."

The comment was rewarded by the girl turning beet red. "Th-th-thank y-you." She stammered. She stared at the signature and gasped. "Ha...THE Ha-Ya-To?" she asked, her face becoming redder by the second.

Ha-Ya-To gave her a quick salute. "At your service." He gave her a wink, which caused her to squeal in both delight and surprise. She muttered something incoherent at the pilot, before turning around and racing back to her friends.

Ha-Ya-To leaned back against the battle machine. He continued to watch the children play. They chased one another in circles laughing and shouting to one another. Watching them made Ha-Ya-To feel a wave of nostalgia. He remembered the innocence he once had and the little concern he needed to show to the politics and economy. A weak sense of jealousy grew in the pit of his stomach, but he quickly dismissed it by staring at the blue, white and red battle machine that lay still. At least he could fly now; his dream from the start.

A loud clunk snapped him out of his reverie. "The tank's full." Ha-Ya-To pulled out the promised ten dollars and handed them to him.  
"Thanks buddy." He said, climbing into the Blue Falcon and preparing to take off. He pressed the green button on the right side of the control board. The battle machine hummed to life and the heavy metal protection bars began to close around the pilot's chest and waist. All the lights in the battle machine went on.

"Ready to fly?" Ha-Ya-To asked himself.

He grabbed the small joystick that was hanging on the side wall of the cockpit, and pushed it forward. The engines roared to life and the boosters began to lighten the weight on the Blue Falcon.

Just when Ha-Ya-To was about to close the cockpit, did he feel someone knocking him gently on the head. He turned to see an engineer yelling in order to be heard over the noise. "Something's coming from the west. And there are a lot of them!"

Ha-Ya-To nodded. "On my way!" he yelled. Once the engineer had jumped off the battle machine, Ha-Ya-To piloted the Aero Booster up in the air and into the skies.

"So the west is…" he remembered his awful sense of orientation, and decided to play it safe by checking the maps in the computers. "This way." He said. He veered the Aero Booster to the left. He gave the city one last glance. Seeing the children he had been watching waving and cheering, he decided to give them a quick little show.

Ha-Ya-To made the engines roar, and made a huge, impressive barrel roll. Waving at the children, he pulled up and shot towards into the distance.*

"That's the last of them." Takashi said, as he watched the last ship carry the Lythanium into the Golden City. "Now what?" He looked up at his Blade Titan, then back at Hikaru.

The blue haired pilot pressed a couple of buttons on the Sky Guardian's control board. "Ryo should start adding the Lythanium to the battle machines' armor. I guess we're free to either return to the Shikara Outpost or remain here."

* * *

Hitomi stretched her arms. "Well I'm gonna stay here. The mechanics need as much help as possible. See ya!" She walked away towards the labs.

Hikaru looked at Takashi. "I was going to return to the Shikara Outpost. Wanna come? Ryo and Hitomi are capable to deal with the robots if there's an attack. And there's Rika who we keep underestimating."

The ground-born pilot shrugged. "Race you." He said, as he activated his red battle machine and raced down the mountain towards the fortress, followed by the white and blue battle machine.

"Hey Ryo, you there?"

The emerald-eyed pilot entered the lab in the search of the legendary engineer. She saw the Cyclone Defender that rested its engines off and its arms still, and the open cockpit was so still, as though contemplating the new battle machine that was still under construction.

Hitomi turned to see her favorite pilot screwing and connecting wires in all directions. She had rarely seen him so happy. "Hey Ryo?"

The mechanic didn't hear her: he was wearing his pair of headphones, his head bobbing with the beat. "It's time to power up! It's time to blow them up! Yeah this is our life…"

Hitomi could barely contain her laughter. Looks like some things didn't change. Not to mention that this time, Ryo was wearing his goggles, making him look as though he was some sort of super star.

Hitomi walked behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. The boy stopped what he was doing, and became very still. He, very slowly, raised his head and stared into the smiling face of the girl who took off his headphones.

"You did it again Ryo." She answered gently, though the smile on her face was still present.

Ryo blushed fiercely. "How do you even manage to enter this place?" he asked

"Through the front door." Hitomi answered in manner of fact. She sat down next to where Ryo was kneeling. "How's the building going?"

Ryo smiled. "Ohhh, just great! I've got both the reactors connected, so now this girl is ready to fly! And the legs are almost completely finished. The problem that remains is what kind of skin and agility I'm gonna give her. I don't know!"

Hitomi tilted her head sideways. "Well why not get inspired by the Blazing Falcon? You can put it apart again for a little while. I don't mind using-"

Ryo's face became a picture of pure horror. "NO!" he screamed. "I won't put her apart! I mean, what if...how will…"

Hitomi reddened slightly. "Aw don't be so worried about me Ryo. I can fight without a battle machine." She patted the boy on the back.

"Okay but…what about Blazing Falcon? What if I never put her back the way she used to be? She'll hate me! A-and what if I never put her back together again? I'LL BE A MURDERER! GAAAAAAAHHHHH!" He screamed, clutching his head in his hands and resting his forehead against the metal of the currently-being-built battle machine.

Hitomi felt a pang of jealousy grow in the pit of her stomach. "Ryo, for the umpteenth time-"

"I can't do it Hitomi. Blazing Falcon…she's a beauty too. I can't harm such a beauty…"

Hitomi face palmed. This was really getting ridiculous. "Right…ANYWAY, the Lythanium has been sent to the labs. I wanted to ask if you…"

Ryo gave her a boyish grin. "If I could be your right wing? The other guys are giving you a hard time?"

Hitomi couldn't help but smile at his reaction. "Yeah. And I want someone _decent_ to be around so I don't kill myself."

"Go o, I'll catch up. Just the time to take those off and straighten by banda-HEY!" he yelped as Hitomi covered his eyes with his bandana.

"There. Now I can go through all your computers while you start struggling to save the remains of your eyesight"

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ANYTHING!"

* * *

Rika peeled the goggles off her face and sighed. Though they had a numerous amount of Lythanium, and that they were placing it on the old battle machines, the work was still tiring and was slowly but surely, sapping the strength of the mechanics.

She stared at her oily gloves. She was still in the middle of perfecting her third Gate Defender. The battle machine had been stripped of its original metal skin of Intractium, showing the wires coiled around the skeleton like a bunch of excited snakes. The feet and the upper parts of the legs had been covered with the Lythanium.

Rika began to realize that there was more of a reason to why the robots used Lythanium non-stop: the Lythanium may be an extremely light, solid and effective but if it was misplaced, even by a fraction of a millimetre, it became completely useless.

Rika had too keep a constant and strong concentration in order to place the new metal skins properly.

She didn't want her work to end up like the two Stealth Hunters that were destroyed by another groups' efforts in trying to replace a metal plate.

"Hey Rika?" The girl turned to see another engineer walk towards her. "Go get some rest. You're exhausted. I'll take over."

"I'm fine." Rika snapped at him. "I don't need your help." Suddenly, a piece of Lythanium that she misplaced on the Gate Guardian got torn off and collapsed on the floor with a loud bang.

Rika groaned. "Fine." She tossed the wrench at the pilot and stormed out of the lab.

She walked out of the building and stepped into the rainy streets of the Golden City. Rika sighed. Rain. It kept the robots away, but Rika hated getting wet.

She took a deep breath and raced into the streets. She nearly slipped on a puddle, but finally reached the control center of the Golden City.

Rika took a quick second to attempt to get all the water out of her hair and uniform. Tilting her head sideways, she wrinkled her black hair, she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"Need a towel?" a boy asked. He passed her a green towel lying on the radiator.

"Thanks." she started ruffling her hair with the fabric. "Is Hitomi here?"

The pilot shook his head. "I don't think so. If she is, then I've missed her. Sorry."

Rika shrugged and placed the towel back over the radiator. "Whatever." she shuffled past him and looked around. Failing to see her friend, she decided to see the pilots and control members. She walked briskly to one of the only one she knew she could trust. "Hey Swift. You got a sec?"

The black-haired teen whirled his chair around and grinned at her. "Hey Rika! What's up?"

"I wanted to see if there was anything to know about."

Swift rolled his eyes. "Can't stand being inactive for a second right? You're no better than your brother."

"Haha. Ryo's eccentric. I'm just active." Rika fired right back him. "Did you see that dork or Hitomi?"

"They're both in the labs trying to upgrade the battle machines. At last that's the last I've heard of them." Swift answered.

"Who is?"  
Both people turned to face Hikaru who was walking towards them. "I decided to let Takashi win the race. Since there's nothing to do down there, I went to see if there's anything to keep me busy here." he explained emotionlessly.

Swift nodded. "Well your outta luck. Rika was just asking me the same question. Unless you've got some mechanic skills-which obviously don't-there's nothing to do."

Rika stared at Hikaru. "Hey Hikaru? I was wondering if you were-"

"Oh god no." Swift complained, leaning back in his chair. "Don't get mushy on one another. all but that. Not the right time or area." his comment was responsible of the double death glare sent by the two pilots. "No really," he said as his little joke was about to get him beaten up, "I don't want to know what you two are going to do. Cause it's obviously more fun than being stuck here, and...uh...I might lose my cool if I hear it?" Rika's glare softened a little, but Hikaru still shot him the stone-cold emotionless stare.

He was saved by a beeping. Spinning around and pulling his headphones on, he answered. "Is that you Ha-Ya-To? I read you, go ahead."

Hikaru and Rika leaned over his shoulder, curious as to know the problem.

The famous pilot's voice answered. "SWIFT! GET HELP! YELLUS! IT'S UNDER ATTACK! THERE'S A-GAH! SWIFT! DEVASTATOR! YOU HEAR ME? DEVASTA-GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The comm. System fell silent, but Hikaru instantly jumped into action. "Swift, tell Takashi to get to Yellus city quickly! Warn Sensei too! Have the Shikara outpost prepare for a possible attack!" He spun around. "I'm going in!" he yelled, racing out the room, followed by Rika.

Hikaru clambered into his Sky Guardian, realizing that he was still dripping wet only when the safety bar closed around his chest. He shook his head like a dog after swim to keep the water from trickling into his eyes.

He was about to close the cockpit when he noticed Rika climbing in her Golden Guardian. He clicked the comm. system on. "Rika, what are you doing?"

"It's called joining you, dork. I'm going whether you like it or not."

"Now listen here woman. Ha-Ya-To's in trouble. I'm off to save him, which means that there's only Ryo and Hitomi and two squadrons left to defend the city. You're staying here." Hikaru's glare was cold and conveyed one message: not disobedience.

However, Rika was probably the only one to be unaffected by it. "Don't 'woman' me Hikaru! Someone has to cover you!" Without wasting a minute, she kicked her Golden Guardian on, and raced out before taking off into the raining night.

Hikaru groaned. "Ryo's going to kill me." He muttered. He pressed the 'on' switch. He felt comfortable shaking of the Sky Guardian as it started, the engines humming to life. The reactors roared. "Hang on Ha-Ya-To. I'm coming!" he announced as he ran out of the labs, and took off in the dark and wet skies.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To twisted the joystick to the left, sending the Aero-Booster in a wild dive. "YAAAAAAARRRRRRR!" he yelled as the Mobile Devastator fired read beams of destruction at the Exo-Force pilot.

"SLALOM BABY! SLALOM!" he shouted, as he made a barrel roll, all the beams missing completely. Ha-Ya-To slammed his fist on the left button on the side of the control board. The left arms fired greens beams, pulverising Iron Condors that dared to face the legendary pilot.

Ha-Ya-To cheered. He didn't know why, but moments ago, he was in complete panic, but the adrenaline had kicked in, making him lose all sense of danger. Now, Ha-Ya-To was longer afraid. He was excited like hell. He even wondered why the hell he even called the Golden City.

There was a huge explosion. Ha-Ya-To grinned. "All guns fired." He ordered to himself.

The three guns of the Aero Booster roared to life, and numerous greenish beams screamed across the sky, before slamming against one of the dozen Shadow Crawlers that were beginning to enter the city.

The battle machine in question ceased to exist completely, as it erupted in a ball of fire, taking two Claw Crushers with it. "Who's next?!"

He felt the battle machine shake violently: a Thunder Fury had hit him. Ha-Ya-To shot the offending robot a death glare-which was more comical than threatening due to his huge grin. "You want some? Well here you go!" he shouted as he fired the right gun this time. The twin blasters tore through the older battle machine like paper. Ha-Ya-To flew victoriously over it. "Made specifically in Japan and shipped to here! Hope you appreciated our business! NEXT COSTUMER!"

He made a sharp turn, taking notice of the numerous Iron Drones that were pouring out of the Mobile Devastator. "Open Fire" he heard them say. Their bazookas blasted, chasing the smoke of the battle away and dishing out a new definition of destruction.

The beams hit the Aero Booster, which shuddered violently. One of the robots screamed in its metallic voice: "Aero Booster defeated. Victory Assured"

Ha-Ya-To gritted his teeth. "Do you really think my Aero Booster, the Exo-Force's ultimate battle machine, will be defeated so easily? Think again." He pulled the yellow button. "ALL ROCKETS FIRED!"

The Blue Falcon was engulfed by a blinding light, and three yellow rockets blazed before hitting the robot rank with a deafening explosion. Pieces of iron and steel were thrown high in the air, as the entire legion of Iron Drones were entirely wiped out.

The devastator stared at the Aero Booster from his seat in the Mobile Devastator. "Aero Booster. Pilot Ha-Ya-To. Scans report: destroyed 33.6% robot force and rising. Aero Booster: damage 4.1%. Capable of stopping mission. Conclusion: Destruction recommended." It stated. It pressed a couple of commands on the control board. Soon, the all the guns of the Mobile Devastator were alive and shooting in the direction of the Aero Booster.

The large blue and white battle machine twisted left and right, made wild dives and jerky rises. "Jeez you guys can't ask politely can you? Or is it that our production is so appreciated you just can't wait for half a second?" Ha-Ya-To asked. "Well I'm not surprised. Japanese products are much better quality than the Americans and Chinese." His eyes went wide as a huge beam narrowly missed him, grazing the left arm of the Blue Falcon and chipping away a piece of the metal. "That was close…" he muttered. He aimed the right twin canons at the Mobile Devastator's neck. But quickly changed the aim. "The last time in the Golden City, the neck was unbreakable. Maybe if I aim for the cockpit…" He fired. The blasts cracked the-how-do-you-break-this-freaking-glass, but failed to penetrate it.

Ha-Ya-To felt his stomach twist in a knot when he saw the other robot battle machines units to take him down. He knew that Aero Booster had rough armor, but it would not withstand the impact of all those canons.

He braced himself for the explosion and intense heat of the explosion. It never came.

"GET OUTTA THE WAY!"

A dozen of green beams shot past the Aero Booster, each of them destroying one robot battle machine.

Ha-Ya-To twisted to see a soaked Golden Guardian and Sky Guardian followed by a legion of Stealth Hunters fly towards the city. A huge wave of happiness crashed onto him. "RIKA! HIKARU! YOU'RE HERE!"  
The Sky Guardian, being faster than all the other battle machines, reached the battlefield first. "You alright Ha-Ya-To?" Hikaru asked, flying protectively over the Aero Booster.

"Well since you're all here, you bet I am! Come on! Let's finish this together!" the red head cheered.

The green eyed pilot flew in front of the Sky Guardian, catching Hikaru's cobalt blue eyes. He gave him the thumbs up. The Sky Guardian raised its sword. "You've never seen the changes made to the Stealth Hunters. Time to show you! STEALTH HUNTER GROUP! ATTAAAAACK!"

There was a loud cheer, and the seven pilots in the Stealth Hunters charged into battle, their electro-swords spinning in circles and guns firing at point blank range.

The robots countered, firing their weapons back. The Shadow Crawlers fired their canons at the Stealth Hunters. The Thunder Furies charged, their swords raised.

But the Lythanium had increased the agility of the Stealth Hunters, even these old battle machines could easily stand up to the more recent and developed ones. The white Exo-Force battle machines moved with such agility that even the fast the Dark Panthers could barely cope. Their blades spun in circles, slicing armor and stabbing the battle machines, inflicting more damage than before.

Ha-Ya-To gapped. "Oh my freaking GOD! THIS IS GREATER THAN EVER!" He fired the upper canon. The blast smashed against a damaged Shadow Crawler, blowing it to pieces. Flying over the Mobile Devastator, he fired his twin canons. "I TOLD YOU!" he shouted at the devastator. "JAPANESE PRODUCTS ARE WAY BETTER THAN AMERICAN!" The green beams chipped the armor.

Hikaru glared at Ha-Ya-To. "Is this the moment?" he asked. He brought his sword crashing down on a Shadow Crawler, electricity surging uncontrollably around the black battle machine. Without missing a beat, he fired his particle beam rifle, blowing a Claw Crusher off its feet and into the gorge behind it. He noticed Rika's Golden Guardian blasting a Thunder Fury, before being assaulted by three Shadow Crawlers.

Rika yelped in surprise as the thee robot battle machines dragged the Golden Guardian down, and began to climb over it in attempt to tear its pilot out of the cockpit.

"RIKA!" Hikaru yelled.

A Stealth Hunter saw the trouble and fired at one of the offending battle machines. Hikaru was about to aid his friend, when Ha-Ya-To fired all his guns, pulverizing the Shadow Crawlers. "You okay Rika?" he asked. "Cause I don't want to be part of Ryo's target practice. Acting as the target."

"I'm fine." Rika answered. "A bit toasty but fine. Not much damage. Now does anyone know how to take the Mobile Devastator? Cause I have an idea."

Hikaru looked at her. "What is it?"

"WHATEVER IT IS, DO IT NOW! CAUSE THINGS ARE GOING SKYWARD!" a pilot yelled as his Stealth Hunter was blasted clear off the ground, before ramming into a house, sending a column of smoke in the air.

"SHOU!" Hikaru yelled.  
"Ow…I…ow…I think…ugh…" came the weak reply. Another pilot flew into the smoke and pulled out a heavily damaged Stealth Hunter, its pilot unconscious-or at least that's what Hikaru hoped.

Rika pushed past Hikaru's Sky Guardian and took off. When she was hovering just above the Mobile Devastator. "All right." She said. "Time to go haywire." She deactivated her Golden Guardian's reactors.

The red and white fell like a rock. Rika felt her stomach reach her throat as the speed began to pick up. She heard the wind screaming at her to stop, but she paid no notice. She pointed the canon towards the growing target. She fired.

The blast, followed by the collision, caused the armor of the deadly battle machine to collapse entirely, and the Golden Guardian to rip through it, destroying all the circuits and machinery inside.

The Mobile Devastator sparked dangerously. Rika tried to get the Golden Guardian out of the wreckage, but the battle machine was trapped, the numerous wires and damaged metal lodged into the metal plates, keeping it from leaving.

Hikaru felt his blood turn cold and his face pale. "RIKA!" he screamed

Rika pressed the eject button. She felt something soft, yet hard hit her in the gut as her seat was blasted clear out of the Golden Guardian and into the sky, before being caught by a damaged Stealth Hunter.

Not a second later, the Mobile Devastator exploded like a supernova, sending beams of destruction in all directions, and melted metal everywhere.

* * *

Keiken watched the battle machines land in the Golden City. He noticed that Rika was missing a battle machine, and one of the Stealth Hunters being carried by another.

He waited for Hikaru to walk towards him. "Mission complete."

"Report." Keiken merely said.

"We've lost a Golden Guardian and a Stealth Hunter." Hikaru stated. His face was emotionless and stone cold. "The Lythanium has done a brilliant job: the Stealth Hunters were nightmares to the robots. But they're all relatively damaged. Even the Aero Booster is dented."

Keiken smiled. "Is the city safe? Any injured?"

Hikaru nodded. "The city was evacuated in time. In was badly damaged, but no one has been killed. But Shou has taken a concussion. He didn't wake up yet."

Keiken nodded. "Get some sleep. I'll deal with the rest"

Ha-Ya-To turned and began to walk away, muttering something incoherent about a shower and Taylor Swift, followed by some of the pilots.

"Hey Hikaru!" The dyed blue haired pilot turned to see Rika walk briskly towards him. "So, was I really that useless? I saved Yellus."

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Rika, it's not that I want to disagree with you, but I'm exhausted. I'm going to get some sleep. Rub it in my face tomorrow okay?"

Rika smiled. "All right." She stood on tippy-toe and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Enjoy your last night with your pride intact." And she ran towards her own room.

HIkaru stared at her shrinking figure, before bringing his fingers to his lips. He stared at his hand, trying to fully register what happened.

He stayed in a complete state of shock and confusion till he slipped in his sleeping clothes and climbed into his bed.

Ha-Ya-To noticed his odd behavior. "Is something wrong?"

Hikaru shook his head. "I'm fine thanks." He stared at the pilot who was curling up in his own bed. "You still haven't explained why you still sleep with PJs."

"Some things are better off told unexplained." The pilot answered. He gave a huge yawn. "You look preoccupied. You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. Night." Hikaru said as he turned over in his cool sheets. Just when he managed to get some shut-eye, he heard something that shook right awake.

"OMG THAT DID NOT HAPPEN!"

Hikaru sat bolt upright in his bed and stared at Ha-Ya-To's shocked face. "Robots?"

The red head pointed at him. "Did Ryo go intimate with you?"

Hikaru stared at him, dumbfounded, before rolling over, not bothering to answer the disturbing question.

"Or was it Rika? They look so alike…" Hearing no answer, Ha-Ya-To grabbed one of his pillows and threw it at Hikaru. "HEY I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

"SHUT UP HA-YA-TO AND GO TO SLEEP!"

"Or else?"

Hikaru sat up again and gave his room-mate the deadiest, coldest glare he could muster. "You really want to know?" he asked extremely coldly and dangerously.

Ha-Ya-To flopped over. "I'm changing roommate. You're no fun. You'll sleep with Takashi."

Hikaru was so tired he didn't bother answering. "Whatever…" he muttered before finally drifting to a peaceful sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, sorry for the wait, but I had a lot to say in this chapter. And I wasn't sure how to end it. So...yeah.**

**Thanks Pixeljam for being so patient. Now you're rewarded with a long chapter! ^^ I hope you enjoy it!**

Ryo stretched his arms as he finally finished his handy work. "Done" he announced. He stared at Hitomi. "What's my time?" he asked.

Hitomi pressed a button on a stop watch. "One hour, thirty seven minutes and twelve seconds. You're growing old Ryo."

The mechanic grimaced. "Yeah. I've got some polishing to do." He stared at the Grand Titan which was now gleaming beautifully with the new plating armor of Lythanium. He crossed his arms. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm gonna catch some air. And see if there's anything else to do. I'm getting a little bored of repairing."

Hitomi stared at Ryo. "You…bored…of…building…" She placed a hand on his forehead. "Are you feeling okay Ryo? I think you should go to the infirmary."  
Ryo grinned. "Well I did my job. And knowing the other mechanics, asking to help them would only find me beating them up in the practice center." He took off his dirty gloves. "Well I dunno about you, but I'm going to hit the cafeteria. I haven't eaten anything since yesterday evening. I'm starving."

Hitomi nodded. She tossed his raincoat. "I'll pass. I'm on a diet." She rolled her eyes at Ryo's pose, suggesting that he was analyzing her to prove the fact. "I want a quick word with Sensei. Do you know where he is?"

Ryo gave up his little game and shrugged. "How should I know? I've been in here for god-knows-how-long. But knowing him, he's probably in the control center, sitting in his favorite corner, checking out the Golden Towers documents. Why do you want to see him?"

"Secret advice." Hitomi answered. "I've been given a mission and I want some trusting dude capable of giving me advice."

Ryo raised an eyebrow. "And we're not trustworthy?"

"NOPE!" Hitomi yelled as she ran out the door, before diving back inside, soaking wet. "I forgot it was raining outside…"

Ryo laughed. "Hey Marcus!" he yelled at a mechanic. A teenager brunette looked up from his work and stared at Ryo, his head jerked in a position that meant 'what'. "Can I borrow your coat? I'm done here and you'll still be stuck till this evening."

"Go ahead." The techie answered before returning his attention to the Uplink he was busy upgrading the Lythanium on.

Ryo tossed the boy's coat at her. "Here. At least you'll be approximately 23% dry when you reach Sensei."

Hitomi caught the coat gratefully. "Where did those numbers come from?" she asked.

Ryo winked at her. "I've got my ways." He opened the door. "Your highness." He stated in a waiters voice.

Hitomi rolled her eyes and stepped out. "Bleh. I hate the rain." She muttered. "Well Ryo I'm going to-WHA!" she yelped when Ryo yanked the hood of the coat off her head, causing her hair and face to get successively wet. "RYO THISSERA GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" she yelled as the techie ran away like hell. "Really…" Hitomi pouted playfully before throwing the hood back over her head. Realizing how wet she was, she decided against the idea of seeing her grandfather.

Instead, she headed towards the training center with the prototype battle machines. When she stepped in, she was instantly greeted with a roar of laughter. She stepped towards the group of pilots who were laughing to see what the whole commotion was about, when she heard someone calling her name. "Hitomi, you're soaking wet. You want a towel?"

Hitomi realized that her hair was dripping wet. "Yeah thanks Lucas." She said as she took off the borrowed coat and grabbed the presented towel.  
The pilot smiled. "Just put it back on the counter when you're done with it." He quickly raced back to the group to watch the rest of what seemed to be a hilarious battle.

Hitomi ruffled her hair with the towel, and hurried to see the fun. "What's happening?" she asked a pilot.

The guy sniggered. "A battle between Hikaru, Takashi and Ha-Ya-To"

Hitomi couldn't suppress a grin. Whenever these three fought, something fun was about to happen.

* * *

"I SWEAR, IF I MISS THIS EVEN ONE MORE TIME, I'LL BLOW RYO'S COMPUTER UP!" Ha-Ya-To yelled in absolute frustration as the blasts fired by his Aero Booster were easily evaded by the extremely agile Dark Panther. He, Hikaru and Takashi had decided to gang up together against the most difficult level, and with its abilities pushed to its limits.

Because of that, the prototype Dark Panther was now a beam of light, and even Hikaru had trouble hitting it with his extremely talented sniping skills.

So while the Dark Panther was jumping all over the place to avoid getting hit, the three legendary pilots began to start arguing with one another, and the playful atmosphere was turning very quickly into a frustrated and homicidal one.

Ha-Ya-To fired again, only to hit the ground where the Dark Panther was standing mere seconds ago.

"So much for Ryo's computer." Hikaru stated, flying past the howling red head's battle machine. He had grown so irritated that he had lost his playfulness and was now emotionless. In fact, he was so worried that he had lost his sniping skills-being unable to hit the incredibly fast target-that he fired a shot at Takashi. Needless to say, the ground born pilot had not been amused. "Anything else you feel like giving up? How about your guitar? I'm pretty sure an orphanage would-"

"WHY DON'T YOU MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL AND HELP US HIT THAT THING!" Takashi yelled.  
"Why should I?" Hikaru asked. "The one who needs aiming practice is you. Not me."

"This coming from the guy who hasn't landed a single-"

"I've hit it. It's just resistant with its huge armor."

Takashi sighed in effort not to shoot the aerial pilot down from sky. "Oh wow! Impressive. You hit it once. Now how about lending us a hand o mighty one?"

The Dark Panther leaped stealthily into a tunnel.

The three Exo-Force pilots were about to follow it, when Ha-Ya-To flew back upwards. "I don't fit in there. I'll leave the rest to you. I'm afraid of dark places and-"

"Okay Ha-Ya-To, let's make a deal. You detach your Blue Falcon and come with us, and we don't blast you." Hikaru stated.

Ha-Ya-To muttered something about communists, but did as told. The pilots walked cautiously into the tunnel. Ha-Ya-To heard Takashi over the comm. System. "Hikaru, get your Canadian butt down here and quit trying to leave. You're a disgrace to the Exo-Force team."

The Sky Guardian reappeared at the entrance of the tunnel and started walking inside. "The Canadian answers that he at least has a brain, right _Florence_?"

Takashi spun around madly, firing his guns at the blue and white battle machine. Despite the small size of the tunnel, Hikaru managed to successfully evade the attack. "Don't you call me like that AGAIN!" he yelled, threatening to enter into his 'Savage' mode.

Ha-Ya-To turned the Blue Falcon around so he was facing Hikaru. "Wha-"

"DON'T EVEN BOTHER ASKING!" Takashi roared as he activated his bladed shield, threatening to pierce the pilot to shreds.

"Oookaaay." Ha-Ya-To answered. He stared back down the dark hallway. "Can anyone see anything?" he asked. "The Blue Falcon doesn't exactly the type that casts light."

"Then why don't you scout up ahead and become prey to the robot?" Takashi asked. "We'd like that."

"Um…I wouldn't?"

"Who said anything about your opinion?" Hikaru stated. "Youngest people are used for tests or suicidal missions here. And you're the youngest after me by three months."

Ha-Ya-To made a face. "This is child abuse. That's illegal!"

"So is underage drinking."  
"I don't drink. I don't even like alcohol."  
"I never said you did. And if you don't go, you'll suddenly become preoccupied about surviving our blasts." Hikaru snapped.  
Ha-Ya-To looked at Takashi for help, but the boy seemed to like the idea of blasting the youngster down the tunnel. Shoulders slumped in defeat, Ha-Ya-To started his Blue Flacon down the tunnel.

The light becoming more and more dim, Ha-Ya-To wandered deeper till he finally came to a full stop. "Guys, this is as far as I can go. I can't see anything."

A green blast (fired most likely by Hikaru) lit the room and shot past him. "Move." Hikaru ordered.

Ha-Ya-To made a face. "Everyone hates me." He took a few steps further when he heard some clanking noises. Whimpering, he looked at the radar. He paled and looked back through the glass. "Mercy?"

In front of him, stood hundreds of robot battle machines, their weapons raised and preparing to shoot.

* * *

Hitomi burst out laughing along with the other pilots as the Blue Falcon spun around like made and run like hell towards the exit yelling: "HOLY LORD JESUS HELP ME!" She clutching her stomach, she looked through her watery eyes to see the rest of the fight.

Takashi and Hikaru noticed him coming and prepared their weapons. When the Blue Falcon dove behind the Grand Titan, the three of them noticed that none of the robots had moved or even fired.

"Errr…what are they waiting for?" Hikaru asked.

"Well I'm certainly not the one they're looking for. Maybe if someone else went…" Ha-Ya-To started.

"For once, I agree with you." Hikaru said. "Takashi, you go."  
"WHAT? Why me and not you? Who says that they want me and not you?" Takashi answered in bewilderment.

"Says me. And are you going to be a man and face them, or are you going to cower in fear?"

Takashi looked ready to blast Hikaru down, but Ha-Ya-To interrupted his thoughts.  
"I have plan. It consists of sending Takashi forward and we following while the robots are distracted."

"FINE!" Takashi snapped. "I'LL be the man. Unlike you cowards." With that he raised his guns and fired his guns. "All rockets fired." He said as he launched all his rockets.

The robots instantly dove at the humans.

"I'M STILL ALIVE!" Ha-Ya-To screamed as he piloted his Blue Flacon past the mess. A red beam shot past him and another one followed, hitting the Blue Falcon in the back, close to the shoulder.

The small battle machine almost tripped due to the hit, but regained balance and continued racing to the other side.

Hikaru made no sound. With even less emotion than ever, he kicked the left rudder of the Sky Guardian, and fired his guns, clearing a path. Without wasting a second, he shot through it, spinning his electric blade in arcs, destroying all the robot battle machines that dared to get close to the veteran pilot. He passed Ha-Ya-To and waited patiently for the other two pilots who were inside the tunnel to catch up.

The Blue Flacon arrived second, skidding to halt beside the blue and white battle machine.

Both aerial pilots looked back inside the tunnel to see Takashi in his Blade Titan, lumbering towards them. He leveled his guns and fired.

When he reached the two, he looked up. "No sign of that Dark Panther. It wasn't in there either."

"Well now that we're out of the cave, what do we do next?" Ha-Ya-To asked.

"Ask the Canadian idiot."

Hikaru turned the Sky Guardian so he was capable to look at Takashi directly. "Well _Florence_ why don't we-" He instantly took off to dodge a beam of energy fired from the Bade Titan.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME LIKE THAT!"

Ha-Ya-To looked up at the flying battle machine that was rapidly gaining altitude. "I know this is the second time I'm asking but-" he instantly shut up when Takashi pointed his guns at him. "Um…Hikaru…why are you flying so high?" he asked.

The unofficial leader did not answer. Once he was several miles high, he stabilized the reactors. "Hey control guy? Gimme infinite amount of all the weapons in existence." he snapped. He heard an affirmative reply. "Hey Takashi? How about we make a deal? You wanna become my roommate? Ha-Ya-To's been a pain in the butt."

The pilot looked up at the distant Sky Guardian. "What do I gain in this? You know what, I honestly don't care. I'll pack after we beat the Dark Panther to bits."

At cue, the robot battle machine appeared next to them. Instantly, Takashi made a wild dive at the battle machine and Ha-Ya-To fired his Blue Falcon weapons: three rockets and one laser.

The Dark Panther twisted out of the way, making the rockets explode against the rocks and the Blade Titan miss the target.

"I got it guys."

Both pilots looked up at Hikaru who was miles high. "Launch 100 of them." he said

"CRAP NOT THE ATOMIC BOMBS! NOT THE ATOMIC BOMBS!" Ha-Ya-To screamed. Just when he yelled that, the entire sky went grey and a hundred nuclear bombs started falling.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Ha-Ya-To screamed, diving back into the tunnel, shrieking the whole way.

Takashi merely watched the events, his eyebrows raised. "Really Hikaru? I was expecting a little better from you."

"WE SHOULD'VE THOUGHT ABOUT THE INSURANCE" Ha-Ya-To continued to scream like a girl from deep inside the tunnel.

* * *

Hitomi burst in peals of laughter as the whole battlefield exploded. Even Hikaru wasn't spared from the ultimate atomic explosion.

The three pilots appeared from the prototypes. Ha-Ya-To was grinning hugely, his face flushed with both embarrassment and excitement.

Takashi had and irritated look on his face. He stormed past the group and outside the training center, not bothering to grab his coat.

Hikaru was the last one to come out, his features stone cold emotionless, but Hitomi swore she saw a tinge of satisfaction in his eyes.

She swung her arms around the shoulders of the two pilots. "You two…why in the world do you act like this?"

Ha-Ya-To gave her a sloppy boyish grin. "Releases tension."

Hitomi looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Then why the hell were you ready to murder one another only five minutes ago?"

Hikaru smiled. "We wanted to see who was the manliest between the three of us."

Hitomi rolled her eyes. "So you dropped a hundred atomic bombs. How manly is that? You know what, forget it. Why wasn't Ryo invited?"

"He was in his labs. And you were timing him. We didn't dare to interrupt." The older pilot replied casually.  
Hitomi nodded understandingly. Throwing her borrowed coat on, she opened the door. "Look, Ryo was on his way to the cafeteria. I think you'll want to see him. You haven't spoken for a couple of days now."

"What about you?" Ha-Ya-To asked, putting on his back water-proof jacket.

"I'm off to see Sensei. I wanted to pass due to the rain, but I don't think he'll mind if I just go to him like this. Not that he actually cares."

Hikaru nodded. He threw the hood on. "Well I'll catch Ryo. What about you Ha-Ya-To?"

"Me? Are you crazy? I want to see how many desserts I can swipe this time." the red head answered gleefully. "See you there."

* * *

Ha-Ya-To stared at the bright red object in front of him so intently one could bet that his eyes were going to pop out any second. "Pl…please?" he asked.

Ryo took the item and place on the other side of the table out of the pilot's reach. "No. Now stop it, you're getting on my nerves."

The aerial pilot pouted and lay back against the back of his seat, still eyeing his target wearily.

Ryo looked back at Hikaru who was busy eating a slice of steak. "So what did I miss? I hope you guys didn't do much without me."

The unofficial leader shrugged. "Nothing special. Just blasted own a small army of robots which was trying to destroy the city of Yellus. Then me, Ha-Ya-To" (Hikaru noted that Ha-Ya-To was slowly inching his way towards his prize. Ryo noticed this and grabbed the bright red item and held it in his hand, glaring at the red head) "and Takashi had a training match. Which reminds me: you're rooming with Ha-Ya-To from now on."

Ryo shrugged. "No problems with that." Turning back to Ha-Ya-To, he asked: "Do you snore?"

Ha-Ya-To did not answer, still mesmerized by his treasured prize which was still being cradled in Ryo's palm. "It looks so sad there…" he sighed sadly.

Ryo rolled his eyes. "Fine" he surrendered, tossing the apple.

Ha-Ya-To made a squeal and caught his prize. "To answer your question, nope." he said.

Ryo looked back at Hikaru was now attacking his spaghetti, his fork spinning in his hand, tangling up the food. "So are the rumors true?" he asked.

Hikaru looked up at him. "What rumors?" he asked.

"That you freaked out when Rika got caught in the wreckage of the Mobile Devastator?"

"You bet he was." Ha-Ya-To answered gleefully. "If it weren't for my incredible flying skills your sister would be Michael Jackson singing thriller. And Hikaru would be dying of depression in the corner, allowing everyone to draw dogs on his Sky Guardian-which he is terribly afraid of I might add-and judging by your look Idon'tthinkthiswastherightthingto SAAAAY!" Ha-Ya-To finished yelling out of the cafeteria, followed by a furious Hikaru who stomped after him, before turning around and slumping back against his seat. He scooped up his fork and continued eating. "No these rumors are not true. I was just a little worried when she couldn't escape the area before the Mobile Devastator exploded. That's all. Why who started that?"

Ryo shrugged. "I think it was Rika. She's the one who told me about it in the first place."

Hikaru stopped at mid chew and looked up at him. "What? Why?"

Ryo shrugged. "You know my sister. She's just like that." He stretched. "Well just for the different roommates, I Ha-Ya-To moving to my quarters, or should I go to his?"

"No, he'll be coming to yours. And do you have an alarm clock?"

"Yes, why?"

"Break it. Unless you want to find yourself awake in the middle of the night with Lieutenant Flutz Wuz pointing a gun at you."

Ryo smiled as he thought of what Hikaru must've gone through. Lieutenant Flutz Wuz was a small teddy bear that someone had brought to the Sentai Fortress a couple of months before the attack of the Striking Venom. It was quite famous, especially when it scared a pilot out of his wits when someone had managed to stick a blaster in its paw and putting it the pilot's Stealth Hunter.

"I'll keep an eye for that." he looked back at his hands. "Hey Hikaru, I have a question. Do you know…" Ryo paused for a moment, lost in thought.

Hikaru pushed his now empty plate away. "Go on."

The techie shook his head. "Never min." he said. He got up. "I'm going to pack my stuff. Wanna come? Some company would be nice. Can't spend ten minutes with Rika without having her yell at me. And Hitomi…I've been working with her for hours. A difference would be nice."

Hikaru got up. "Why not? Lead the way." he grabbed his tray. "Just give sec, the time to put this away…"

* * *

"You don't have to pack all your things. It's not like we're going to stay in our rooms forever." Hikaru said. "You spend more time in your labs and Cyclone Defender than here."

"I know." Ryo answered. He placed his bag on the ground and tried the door. "It's locked. Do you have the key?"

"Uh, yeah sure. Gimme a sec…" Hikaru fumbled his pockets until he pulled out a key with a silvery chain. "There." he placed the key inside the lock. He twisted it till he heard a click. He opened the door and allowed Ryo in. "Well here it is. Catch." he tossed the key at the engineer who caught with a swift of his hand.

Ryo entered the room. "Thanks now do y-"

"GO SEXY DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Hikaru spun around just in time to see a flash of gold and white fall from the ceiling and crash into Ryo who fell over with a shout of surprise. Grabbing his blaster on his waist, he prepared to come to his friend's aid. "R-"

"GET OFF ME HA-YA-TO!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes and lowered his weapon. He watched as Ha-Ya-To climbed back to his feet and began brushing the dust of his uniform. "How'd you like my warm welcome?"

Ryo glared up at the pilot. "What was that for?"

Ha-Ya-To looked at him in confusion. "I do this all the time. Especially to newcomers." he suddenly said in an Oracle's voice, "Welcome to my domain little one." He then grabbed Ryo's stuff. "But no seriously, thanks for coming over. Hikaru's a real party pooper. I'm using the bed close to the window. I'll put your stuff away kay?"

Ryo got up and shook his head. "Thanks. Hey Ha-Ya-To?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"Never do that again. I nearly died." rubbing his arm, he looked at the two pilots in his room. "So next rotation is in two months right?"

"Right." Hikaru replied. "Hurry up with the bag Ha-Ya-To I'd like to pack too." He said to the aerial pilot who was busy putting Ryo's stuff in several drawers. After hearing the demand, Ha-Ya-Ya-To took the bag by the corners and unceremoniously dumped out all of its contents onto this roommates bed. He then tossed it the leader. "Here. What are going to take? Just your uniform?"

Hikaru nodded as he threw in his extra electric-blue uniform. "Pass me the timer."

Ryo looked at his friend in surprise, but gave it to him nevertheless. "What for?"

Hikaru looked at him weirdly. "Me and Takashi are going to do as many push ups in limited time." he replied as though the answer was obvious.

Ha-Ya-To finished putting his friend's stuff away. Staring at the closed drawer, he spoke. "I feel a bit down. Any suggestions to make me feel batter?"

Ryo got up from his chair. "Wanna spar?"

Ha-Ya-To grinned. "You are SO on."

* * *

Keiken sighed as he typed away on his computer. He had forgotten how much work it was to keep the Exo-Force running. Confirmation for the armor patches, the payment for the weapons, and the test results of the recruits.  
Sitting back on his chair, he thought carefully. He was tired. His thoughts somehow ended up on Hitomi. Keiken looked at the floor. It had been weeks since the two of them managed to spend some time together. She would enjoy it. Yes, she definitely would.

"Grandfather?"

'_Talk about the devil' _Keiken looked up from his documents and smiled when he saw Hitomi. "Come in Hitomi. What do you want?"

Hitomi shuffled nervously. "Grandfather, I wanted to ask if I could take the day off tomorrow."

Keiken narrowed his eyes. "What day are we today?"

"Thursday 23rd of September." Hitomi silently replied.

"Of course. Go." Keiken practically ordered. "Unless something happens, I'll go with you."

Hitomi smiled gently. "Thanks Grandfather." She turned to leave when Keiken's voice stopped her.

"Hitomi, I wanted to ask, do you want us to spend an evening together. I know a small restaurant in Tyono. It's a small village not too far from here."

Hitomi spun around, her eyes huge. "But, what about the leading?" she asked

"Hikaru can take over for a night. He's decent leader. He won't let us down." Keiken answered calmly.

Hitomi was almost bowing. "Yes please! We no longer spend any time together with all the work!"

Keiken couldn't help but smile. "Very well. I'll take care of booking our table. Now go." He watched as Hitomi raced out of the office.

* * *

_Light._

_Blinding white light._

_It came from everywhere and yet from nowhere._

_Ryo stood still in this huge area, where even the horizon was blinded in the light. "Where am I…?"_

_There was a ripple in the light. A thin line of darkness coming his way…_

_Suddenly, pain exploded through his body. Ryo screamed and doubled over in agony. What was happening? What was this? Where was here?_

_"Come…" a voice whispered._

_Ryo looked up. He saw something. In this whiteness, he saw a tiny black figure in the distance. He tried to stand, only to collapsed back on his knees in pain. He opened his mouth, but the voice spoke to him again._

_"Live as it was meant to be…"_

_Ryo felt fear surge through him amplifying his pain. Fear blinded his mind. "NO!"_

_"Then fall…" the figure began to move closer. Ryo squinted to see what it was._

_Its movements were accelerated. It was coming faster. Waving its limbs in all directions, it ran faster. So fast that Ryo knew that if he didn't move _NOW_ he wouldn't make it._

_He tried moving, but his body felt like zaylium-reinforced steel._

_The figure was only a few feet away. It ran faster._

_And faster._

_It was only a few feet away. Ryo braced himself._

_Then the figure opened its mouth._

_It gave the most painful and loudest blood thirstiest shriek ever._

_Ryo screamed as the figure rammed into him just as everything went dark._

* * *

Ryo sat bolt upright on his bed, drenched in cold sweat, his heart hammering painfully against his ribs.

"Are you okay?"

Ryo slowly became aware of Ha-Ya-To, who was kneeling newt to his bed, a worried look on his face.

The engineer nodded. "Just…just a nightmare." he whispered.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?"

Ryo nodded. "I think." He lay back down on his bed, grateful of his friend's loyalty. Lying back on his bed, he slowly drifted back to a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Breath in, breath out.

Takashi grunted as he placed the heavy loads back on the metal shelves. Sitting back up, he dumped the remains of his water bottle on his head.

"How's the lifting?"

Takashi looked up at Ryo who had just entered the gym. "I can do better. I'm a little off track. Probably because of the push up contest I did last night with Hikaru.'

Ryo nodded. "Who won?"

"Normally I did, but Hikaru's a cheat. He skipped two, eleven and fifteen. I did forty-seven in two minutes. One hand. Hey pass me the towel please."

Ryo looked at the machinery and grabbed the white towel which he tossed at Takashi who caught and began rubbing his head with. "Keiken will be out tonight. Hikaru will take over for the while he's gone. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go on patrol with me later today. I want some company."

Takashi placed the towel on the ground. "Yeah sure why not." He looked up at Ryo's face. "Are you okay? You look a little weird."

Ryo ran a hand through his face. "Just tired. Didn't sleep very well last night. And also because of your hair."

Takashi looked confused. "What's with my hair?"

"The green dye is coming out. I'm not used to seeing its original color."

Takashi looked a mirror against the wall. Indeed, his chocolate brown hair was now appearing. "I'll deal with it later. I'm going to the training center." he said as he threw on a spare T-shirt. "Joining me?"

Ryo shrugged. "Why not." The two of them left the gym. "I heard we got a whole new bunch of recruits. Apparently the destruction of Meca One really boosted the civilians. Know anyone who is there?"

Takashi shook his head. "I rarely go to see them. No the real thing that interests me is the robots. They somehow seemed to have acquired a new leader."

Ryo thought. "Probably. Some of their attacks have been chosen carefully and not at random. Yellus was a good target." he stayed silent before squaring his shoulders. "Well the importance is that we stop them, leaderless or not. And I think we've done better than anyone had expected right?"

Takashi grinned. "You bet. We've done awesome. But I still feel a bit bad."

Ryo looked at him as he opened the door to the training room. "Why?"

Takashi entered. "Well so many pilots and mechanics died just to keep the robots away. And we never really got to give them proper good byes or burials."

Ryo looked sadly down. "Yeah…but at least they died as heroes. But I'm more curious about Sensei. He's experienced and all, but we never see him in action. How strong do you think he is?"

Takashi looked through the stimulator window. His eyes went wide.

Ryo noticed his features. "Um…Takashi?"

"I think we are about to find out."

Ryo looked through the window and gasped.

One Stealth Hunter was standing patiently in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by hundreds of robot battle machines, from sentries to Dark Panthers.

Keiken was standing in it, his eyes shut as though meditating.

Takashi checked the computer. His mouth dropped open. "Is he mad? The prototype Stealth Hunter isn't equipped with Lythanium and the level of power of all robot battle machines is at maximum. There's no way he can make it."

Ryo stared at the old battle machine. "What is going on in his mind right now?"

* * *

Keiken stood calmly in the deactivated prototype Stealth Hunter in the training simulator. He looked at the control board. Seeing a speck of dust, he wiped it away, before staring at the huge army of robots, patiently.

In the corner of his eyes, he noticed Ryo and Takashi who were staring wild-eyed at him, clearly shocked and confused.

Keiken looked at the robot army again. His calm gaze turned into a glare filled with concentration, experience and invincibility. He activated his Stealth Hunter. The battle machine hummed to life.

The simulated robots began to move slowly.

A small smile grew on Keiken's lips. It was a long time since he was capable of fighting with all his strength. This was why he was here: to fight with all his might, skills, and abilities.

And he was going to get his wish. "Time to Power up." he whispered.

Just as he said that, he slammed the controls of the stealth Hunter forward. The white battle machine shot forward with all its original agility and speed.  
The robots dove to meet their single enemy. They fired all their weapons at point blank range, their swords gleaming in the light, threatening to cut the lone human to pieces.

But just when they were about to connect, Keiken took off. Spinning the electro-magnet, he fired at the sole weak points of the battle machines.

Three Dark Panthers lunged at him. But the man saw them coming before they even got the time to jump. Spinning the double-bladed sword in a complete circle, the black and purple battle machines shattered in pieces.

But that was not all. Before the pieces of the Dark Panthers touched the ground, the Stealth Hunter spun its left leg around, activating its reactors. The robots that dared to come too close where either burned or heavily damaged and thrown off balance.

Keiken kicked the pedals of the Stealth Hunter. The oldest battle machine flew skywards into the air and towards one Iron Condor and two Fire Vultures.

He fired two shots. The first one blasted the robot piloting the flying battle machine to pieces and the second one hit the wing, unbalancing the machine.

Without a pilot and with a damaged wing, the Iron Condor began to fall, but Keiken caught it ad, without pausing a second, spun his battle machine in circles and threw the battle machine at the other two.

It clanged against the first Fire Vulture which, unable to carry the extra and sudden load, plummeted towards the ground, where is crashed.  
Keiken did not take the time to admire his handiwork. He slashed the energy cord of the second Fire Vulture which caused to deactivate and fall like a rock.

Keiken, still in the air, deactivated his Stealth Hunter's reactors. It landed on the ground with a heavy _bang_. He watched as all the robot battle machines lunged at him.

Keiken smiled gently. He, with his electro-blade, stabbed the gas container of the downed Fire Vulture.

A huge explosion took place, spreading in all directions at uncontrollable speed. Igniting the gas and munitions from the other battle machines, the fireball became larger and larger, engulfing all the battle machines, before going out.

Keiken, in his burnt and damaged but functional Stealth Hunter, stood back up and left the simulator, not bothering to see the remains of the robots army he had just destroyed.

* * *

Ryo stared at the remains of the battle. Keiken, all by himself, in an extremely old battle machine, had devastated an entire army of robots. Ryo didn't know whether he should be shocked, amazed, whether he should laugh, cheer or just remain silent. He settled by leaving his mouth wide open, his eyes wide.

And judging by the lack of reaction of the pilot next to him, he guessed that Takashi had come to the same conclusion as well.

"Close your mouth boys or you will swallow flies."

Both of them became acutely aware of their leader who was giving them an amused glance. "Takashi, I'd like you to remain at the Shikara Outpost tonight. As for you Ryo, give the order to Ha-Ya-To take a legion of Grand Titans and to go to the Jaikuto Bridge. I've received a report earlier about a few robot sightings up there."

Both boys nodded, still stunned by the performance. Satisfied, Keiken turned and left the training center.

* * *

Hitomi unstrapped her armor and placed it on the bed. She then opened her drawer and started taking out a couple of clothes, before blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

Rika stepped out of the bathroom, tying her hair in a ponytail. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know what I must wear. This is a really important day and…well…I don't know…" Hitomi stared at the few clothes she had.

Rika tilted her head. "What's so important about today?"

Hitomi grabbed a hoodie and a pair of jeans. She threw them on the floor and collapsed on the bed. "It's today that my parents died." she simply replied.

Rika's brown eyes went wide. She sat on the bed and gave her roommate a hug. "I'm sorry." she whispered. "If you want someone to talk to, I'm here."

Hitomi smiled. "I'm fine. A little upset but fine. I didn't really get to know them. I was so young." She got up. "I'm going to go to the graveyard. But I could go there in my uniform. No the reason why I want to change is because grandfather is inviting me to spend the evening with him." Her sad smile turned into a happy one. "This is the first time we get to interact in weeks! Hikaru's gonna take the leading for tonight."

Rika's eyes narrowed slightly. "Wait, when will he be gone?"

Hitomi gave her a surprised look. "About eight or something. Why?"

Rika grinned. "He wants to show me something. We'll be out all afternoon."

Hitomi took her uniform off. "Is this a date? I've noticed you two have grown closer a lot faster."

Rika blushed slightly. "Maybe. What do you think he wants to show me?"

Hitomi threw on her hoodie. "I dunno. Might be the sights. He knows some pretty impressive places."

"Oh, how do you know that?"

"Well I was going on patrol with him and Ryo. He led us to a huge waterfall that gave a view of the ocean around the mountain with the setting sun. It was beautiful."

Rika pictured the scene. "It must've been. How does he know the mountain so well?"

Hitomi pulled her jeans on. "He was testing some battle machines. So, ready to make a move on him? It'd be too bad if you mss the opportunity."

Rika rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease. This coming from the same girl whose eying Ryo or the past three months."

Hitomi took her pillow and threw it at the pilot. "Don't even start. Grandfather is insisting that I get married soon. It's getting irritating."

Rika laughed as she caught t. "You're nineteen. He's got a point. In a couple of years you'll be old and wrinkly."

Hitomi threw another one at her. "It's just one of his crazy schemes to keep me 'safe'. I wish he weren't so darn overprotective. Now stop it and go on your dumb date."

Rika ducked to avoid it. "Fine. While I'll be the arms of prince charming, you'll be busy scrubbing the floor."

Hitomi rolled her eyes in exasperation. Still grinning hugely, she grabbed one of the pillows still lying on the ground, and threatened to throw it. "Want some more?"

Rika raised her hands. "Okay, okay. I'm off. I'll see you later." she was about to step out of the room, before she ran back in and grabbed Hitomi by the shoulders. "Do I look good?"

The emerald-eyed girl gave her an are-you-serious look. "You're in your usual uniform minus the armor plating. Why would you look bad?"

"I don't care! How do I look?"

"Fine. Honestly. Why are you suddenly so worried? Think that Hikaru will find you unattractive?"

Rika blushed. "This is my first date. And with Hikaru! How can I not be worried?"

Hitomi gave her friend a huge hug. "Just go. And if he's mean, just shoot him somewhere painful."

Rika grinned. "Will do. Wish me good luck!" she said as she ran out the door.

* * *

"Hikaru where are we going?"

Hikaru grinned as he piloted the Sky Guardian up the mountain. "Somewhere special." he answered.

Rika shifted her grip on his shoulders. Peering out the cockpit, she was startle by what she saw. "Um Hikaru…we're nearing the very top of the mountain." Indeed, they were flying over the snowy plains of the giant rock that rose from the sea and into the sky.

Hikaru looked down. "We're almost there." He said. "Oh and Rika, can you loosen the grip, you're hurting me."

Rika tugged his hair. "Stop being a crybaby. Now where's 'there?" Her question was answered when she felt her stomach rise to her throat.

"We're here!" Hikaru announced proudly. He deactivated the Sky Guardian and opened the cockpit. "Welcome to the peak of the Sentai Mountain!"

Rika climbed out of the blue and white battle machine and looked around. She gasped.

Snow covered the plains. Past those plains was the view of the ocean that spreaded to the infinity. The sun's rays bounced off the waters turning the bluish liquid into a golden sea of light. The cloudless sky seemed to lifting the sun and allowing it to shine with all its light.

"It's beautiful" Rika whispered. "How come you're the only one who knows about this place?"

"Well there are two reasons. First, it's one of my areas. No one is allowed to come here unless I say so."

"And second?" Rika asked. She yelled as she got hit in the back of the head by a snowball. Glaring playfully at the aerial pilot, she placed her arms on her hips. "Explain."

Hikaru tossed another snowball up and down in his hand. "That's reason two. Private snowball fights." he threw his second snowball.

Rika yelped as she spun, causing the snow to hit her shoulder. She knelt on the ground. "You're going down!" she yelled. She started making a snowball but suddenly winced.

Hikaru noticed it. "What's wrong?"

"It's cold god dang it! How do you manage without gloves!"

Hikaru winked. "I'm Canadian." he answered as though this explained everything. He dodged a snowball thrown at him. "You're too slow."

Rika scooped up some more snow. "Oh yeah? Dodge this!" She threw another snowball at hm.

Hikaru merely stepped out of the way. "You really have a bad throw. How ab-WOAH!" he yelled as Rika tackled him in attempt to throw him off his feet. He staggered backwards but managed to stay upright.

"Dang it!" Rika said as she started shaking him, trying unbalance him.

Hikaru was laughing. "You're really bad at this are you?" With a swift movement, he picked her right up in bridal style.

Rika yelped and clung on to him tightly. "Hikaru! Put me down!"

"All right." Hikaru dropped her. What he wasn't expecting was Rika to pull him down with her. The next thing he knew was that he was on top of her, their faces inches apart. "Got any good plans?" he teased.

Rika blushed. "Get off."

"You don't want that."

"Oh, you can mind read now? Fine what do I wan-" She instantly shut up when Hikaru's lips crashed on hers.

Hikaru caught a glimpse of her widening eyes before he lost in the sweetness of her lips. He felt her arms snake around his neck and pull him closer, trying to deepen the kiss, which he obliged.

After what felt like forever, they broke the kiss for air.

Rika, her face beet-red held him close and closed her eyes when she felt him starting to kiss her neck. Gasping for air, she ran her hands through his hair. "H…Hikaru…" she whispered.

However, the moment was ruined by the beeping of a talkie walkie.

Hikaru groaned as he reached out for his comm. System. Refusing to break their current position he spoke. "Hikaru here. I read you what's up?"

"Hey Hikaru? Did you see my sister? I can't find her anywhere." Ryo answered from the other side of the line.

Hikaru looked at the grinning Rika under him. "No idea where she is. Sorry buddy."

"Dang. Well if you find her tell her I have some papers for her. And Hikaru? You sound out-of-breath? What's wrong?"

"I'm on the top of the mountain. Not as much air up here."

"Okay…well see ya."

Hikaru flipped the talkie walkie off and tossed it a small distance away. He then pressed his forehead against Rika's. "Where were we before your brother rudely interrupted us?"

Rika laughed. She pulled him back closer and kissed him deeply again.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To happily snapped another picture of the couple underneath. He sure was glad Hitomi had let him borrow the Blazing Falcon. Now he could spy on his friends while they had their 'alone-time'.

Ooooh! Hikaru's kissing her neck. Gotta catch this! The pilot snapped another picture, before looking at his camera gleefully. "Man now I'm ready to face the city!" he announced. "Now I've got the perfect blackmail material."

With that, he piloted the Blazing Falcon away.


	6. Chapter 6

**OKAY EVERYONE! I'm sorry about the lack of updates, but I had a couple of tests that were essential to my future, and in the system I'm in, either you get all the points, or you just utterly fail. -_- There's no 'in between'. **

**I want to say thanks to PixelJam for being so patient! And don't forget to check out her story: "The Silver City" on a website I totally forgot the name of. There's also an awesome illustration of the main character on DeviantART. Just look for the username 'Jetzul' and the 'Akira' artwork. ^^ Or just check her fanfiction account and start conversing with her!**

**I want to apologize in advance, for those who adore Takashi, since he's gonna go through a lot of pain in this chapter. **

**Guess what! SOME SECRETS ARE REVEALED!**

**EXO-FORCE GO! **

Hitomi climbed out of the bus that traveled around several cities and towns, passing by the Golden City.

The small town of Tyono sat in the primacies of the Sentai Fortress. It had been evacuated when the Striking Venom had attacked and when the Exo-Force team had left for the Golden City, but with the retreat of the robots and the construction of new fortresses and outposts, the town had been revived.

Hitomi looked around the city, and then took out her phone. Staring at the address, she began to forge her way into the town.

She knew about the small restaurant Keiken had invited her to. It wasn't too special, but food was good and the avenue was calm, creating a peaceful atmosphere.

Not having much to wear, Hitomi had chosen her plain black hoodie and blue slim jeans. Half expecting the robots to jump out to destroy Tyono like they nearly did to Yellus, she had decided to go to her evening armed with her blaster which was resting calmly in her pocket, the handle hidden from view with the rims of the hoodie covering it.

Hitomi found the restaurant. In front of it stood her grandfather in his usual white and grey clothes. He had discarded his staff and was leaning against the windows, his arms crossed, patiently waiting for the remaining member of his family to appear.

Hitomi couldn't help but smile. She knew she was going to enjoy this evening.

* * *

_He stood up from his throne and watched the northern side of the mountain, some areas illuminated by the few cities and towns which still remained despite the robot threat._

_He looked up at the dark sky. The moon washed everything with a brilliant silver color. Even the southern side of this mountain, his domain and the beginning of his empire, was hit with the glow. _

_He stretched his arm out, as though trying to reach for it, and then lowered it. The man stared at his gloved arm. The stars winked in the night sky._

_They were so similar._

_Their glow…it was the same._

_The same. _

_Just like him and…_

_Anger and pain surged through his veins. He lashed his arm out, shattering the glass to pieces. How could they…why…why?_

_The usual clumping sound told him that a robot was coming his way. He quickly straightened himself._

_The door swept open and the silver robot with the eternal glaring red-eyes marched in. It bowed. "The three squadrons have been defeated. The Mobile Devastator is out of commission. Awaiting orders."_

_"By what?"_

_"One squadron of Lythanium upgraded Stealth Hunters, One Sky Guardian, One Aero Booster and one Golden Guardian which is now destroyed." The robot stated._

_The man smirked. This was all too easy. The Exo-Force team is getting over-confident. These pilots did not know, but it was all a matter of time till they all collapsed._

_"There are two legend pilots on patrol. Keep them busy. Then send an army of Claw Crushers to Tyono. Then attack Elthra. Wait a while and launch a massive attack on the Golden City. Send the S.V." he ordered. _

_"It shall be done" The robot rose back to full height and turned to pass the orders. It walked out of the door, its feet noisily hitting the floor with each step._

_The man turned to face the view of the Golden City. Tapping on a computer, he zoomed to see the two legends who were out on patrol. _

_His grin grew. His cold, brown eyes flickered. "Ryo Thissera…Takahi Kettera…" He stared at the image of the Cyclone Defender before zooming in, getting a perfect picture of Ryo's worried expression. "It's time for you to see the truth…" he whispered, his hand brushing the picture as though trying to caress the boy._

_He turned and left the room. Walking towards the army which was now readying for battle, he spoke to the devastator leading the offense. "Take Ryo hostage. I shall kill him personally. And shatter his spirit…" he whispered dangerously._

_The robot nodded. "It shall be done." It stated with its metallic voice. _

_The man smirked as he watched the army step out of the fortress. It was all a matter of time. And even if this failed, there would still be many more attempts._

_The Golden City was an easy catch. _

_Just one thing needed to be done. All humans shared the same weakness._

_"Shatter their spirit with the truth…"_

* * *

"Hikaru's back to the Golden City. And though he denies it, I'm pretty sure that Rika's with him." Ryo said as he clicked the talkie walkie off. "They've been smitten with each other for a little while now."

Takashi shrugged. His Blade Titan took a step forward, where it entered a sea of ferns, causing it to sink knee-deep in a hidden hole. "Hey Ryo, are you sure we should be doing this? I think it would be best if we remained at the Golden City. The robots aren't stupid you know."

Ryo looked at his friend. "I know. But there have been constant minor attacks. We have to stay on patrol." He thought a bit. "What I find weird is how the robots keep attacking large and important places. They've stopped charging right at the Golden City and have shifted their targets."

Takashi pushed some branches aside with his battle machine's guns. "The only thing that I know and care about is that they keep losing. And after the reports of the pilots, the robots are giving in more and more easily. It's getting boring."

Ryo looked at the pilot. He looked down and shrugged. "Well since we've been fighting stronger versions in the Training Center, and with the Lythanium upgrades, we're probably much more of a match for them."

Takashi nodded. "Well as far as I'm aware, I-WHOA!" His Blade Titan was blown clear off its feet and crashed into some wooden barks and out of sight.

"TAKASHI!" Ryo yelled. He was about to go to his friend's aid when he remembered the sudden ambush. Spinning around, he found himself standing in front of two Iron Condors and three Shadow Crawlers. He leveled his gun. "Takashi do you read me?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just a little dented and toasted."

Ryo swung his shield in front of him, protecting his battle machine from the numerous beams of destruction fired by the metal artificial beings. "Can you get back here?" he asked, raising the battle machine's blaster and countered, hitting one of the Shadow Crawler's legs. The black battle machine shuddered but kept its balance. It, along with its allies, stepped closer to the human.

"I'm on my way…just give me a second." Takashi grumbled.

Ryo fired two of his rockets, which destroyed the first Shadow Crawler that had dared to venture too close to the human. Without pausing a second, sung his battle machine's arm around, shooting one Iron Condor that was gliding towards him.

The robots continued to advance.

Ryo dashed at the first and already damaged Shadow Crawler, his bladed shield spinning. The thin blades clipped the injured battle machine's forward guns, and then the disc launcher, causing it to lose almost all combat abilities.

"Damage report: 78, 1 %. Retreat action recommended." The robot stated.

"Negative." A second one replied. "Orders is to take human prisoner. Continue mission."

That perked Ryo's attention. They were after HIM? AGAIN! He spun around. "Takashi, some help would be nice! They're after me!"

"WHAT!" Takashi yelled. "HANG ON! I'M COMING!"

Ryo heard the rustling of the leaves and the sound of cracking stone. He knew Takashi was trying to hurry in climbing the hole in which he fell into.  
As the Shadow Crawler lunged at him, Ryo threw his Cyclone Defender sideways. "COME ON! SHOW THEM WHAT WE'RE MADE OF!" he yelled.

He fired all his weapons at the small legion of robots. The rockets exploded in a shower of flames and metal shards, and the large blaster knocked the Iron Condors over. Without hesitating a second, he charged, his bladed shield spinning so fast it became a blur.

He slammed it in the closest Shadow Crawler, causing the metal to splinter before melting and bursting into fire.

Suddenly, his green battle machine was torn off the grown. Ryo looked up and saw in horror the Iron Condors lifting him with ridiculous ease clear off the ground. "LET GO!" he yelled.

Suddenly, there was a beam of greenish light, and one of the two Iron Condors ceased to exist completely.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Takashi yelled, his Blade Titan's guns blazing, and his bladed shield spinning. He charged and the Iron Condor, ramming into it with the shoulder of his battle machine. When the two giant weapons collided, Takashi swung his guns around, sending the robot battle machine crashing against some rocks where it crashed, sending pieces of metal everywhere.

He then spun around and fired at the Shadow Crawlers. "You all right Ryo?"

Ryo piloted the Cyclone Defender back to its feet and fired beside its ally. "Just in time buddy! Let's do this!"

The two of them charged.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To slumped in his chair and pouted as he watched the Golden City glow around him. "Why is it that Hitomi gets the time off and not me? I did a lot these last few days."

"For the last time H-Ya-To, Hitomi and Sensei Keiken haven't had any time to…well, reunite properly. This is really the only moment they both have available. It's normal they take advantage of it." Hikaru stated as he read a document, his feet on the desk. He scrunched his face up in a scowl. "Great, Renault and Ford won't send us the proper pieces anymore."

Ha-Ya-To turned. "What? Why?"

Hikaru sat down properly and began to scribble something on the document. "Apparently the economic crisis forced them to pass a few reforms in the industries. Now we have to be a bit patient. Looks like we'll have to be a bit more careful with which battle machines we send into battle."

Ha-Ya-To said nothing to the comment. He looked back at the window and stared at the shining city. He smirked. "You're in a pretty good mood. Normally something like this would seriously irritate you. What happened?"

"Nothing. Why?" Hikaru asked, looking up from his work.

"No reason, just asking." The red-head answered cheekily. Looks like the second-leader-in-chief didn't know that he had been…watched while having his 'alone time' with Rika. He placed his hand on his pocket. Feeling the camera safe in it, he nodded in relief. "Hey Hikaru?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"Can I see the trainees?"

Hikaru looked at him, cocking his head at him. "Why?"

Ha-Ya-To grinned. "My secret. Promise I'll be a good boy."

HIkaru rolled his eyes. "Get me some coffee."

Ha-Ya-To glared playfully. "You do it. I'm not your slave."

"Here, can you give this to every pilot in the Four-E Team?" he said, passing him a pile of papers.

"Nespresso or decaffeinate?" Ha-Ya-To grumbled. He got up and walked to the white machine. Grabbing a plastic cup, he took out a couple of credits. "How much sugar?"

"None thanks."

Ha-Ya-To placed the cup full of brownish, warm liquid. "So, now what? I'm bored."

"Why not spy on someone? Or go one patrol? Takashi and Ryo could use some company." Hikaru suggested. He pushed a piece of paper aside, and took another one. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing in irritation. He started reading it, when his talkie walkie made him jump in surprise. He grabbed it. "Hikaru speaking, what's wrong?"

"HIKARU! THERE ARE TWO SQUARDONS OF IRON CONDORS HEADING TOWARDS ELTHRA!" the reply crackled.

Hikaru's eyes went wide. "Looks like your wish will be granted Ha-Ya-To. Defend the trainees!" he snapped at his friend, who dashed away.

"Hey you!" Hikaru yelled back in the talkie walkie. "Send the squadron of Golden Guardians!"

"Yes sir!"

Hikaru shut the talkie walkie down. He thought for a second. He pulled a drawer open and took out a laptop. Opening it, he began to run through a few documents. He opened map and studied it carefully. He grabbed his talkie walkie. "Katsuya? Do you read me?"

"I read you Hikaru, go ahead."

"Send two squadrons of Stealth Hunters to Tyono."

"Sure. Can I ask why?"

"I'll explain later. Just do it!"

* * *

Ha-Ya-To pushed the thruster forward. "I've got to protect them!" he yelled. The Aero Booster gave a huge roar, and accelerated, leaving turquoise smoke behind.

The radar blipped.

Ha-Ya-To smirked. With the speed of the Aero Booster, there was no reason for him not to catch up with the slow robot battle machines. "I've got you" he whispered.

His Aero Booster screamed across the sky, closing rapidly the gap separating the two enemies.

Ha-Ya-To carefully took aim, preparing to shoot the first robot that came into range, when he saw something disturbing.

Tiny green beams, projected from the ground, began to hit the offending robots. The Iron Condors dove downwards and out of sight.

Ha-Ya-To's eyes went wide. "NO!" he yelled. He pressed a few buttons. "This may damage the engines but I have no choice. Now come on, hurry up! The trainees are defenseless against them."

* * *

Tamika pulled out her small blaster and fired at the incoming Iron Condors. "Sergeant Vallahan! What do we do?"

The older man, and the trainer of the recruits, grabbed his blaster. "Get everyone to the bunkers. Take all the weapons we've got and use them when the robots will be at the level of the entrance. With the accumulated firepower, we should be able to hold them off."

Tamika nodded. She ran across the courtyard, now turned into a battlefield. "Akira! We've got to get out of here!" she yelled at her friend.

Some of the trainees, still in the battle machines borrowed to prepare the recruits for the real deal, tried to defend their base and friends, but the battle machines had poor armor and their firepower was far too weak to do any serious damage.

They were the first to fall, the Iron Condors shooting them to pieces and tearing up the armor like paper.

"Humans are defenseless. Mission success assured." A robot stated, firing the Iron Condor's guns at a downed and brittle Stealth Hunter, which exploded.

Tamika paled when she heard the scream of the dying rookie. She had to get the others out of here!

The loudspeakers blared. "Everyone abandon the fight! Get to the bunkers! Leave no one behind! Get all the weapons possible! Re-" It was silenced by the collision of a thrown Uplink which pulverized it completely.

Tamika dove out of the way to avoid getting hit by and Iron Condor's blast. She felt the heat of the explosion hit her in the face. Running as fast as she could, she crouched and hid behind a destroyed Uplink, where she found two more pilots firing their guns over the metal, hitting the battle machines.

Peering over her hiding spot, she saw a group of boys scatter with the landing of the Iron Condor. She made a quick count. "Eight Iron Condors. How come we didn't see them coming?" she whispered.

"LOOK OUT!"

The next thing she knew was that she was tackled and pushed back under the downed Uplink. An arm of a Steath Hunter flew over them, before crashing on the ground. It had been thrown with so much violence that it bounced three times, before slamming against the wall, destroying it.

"Thanks Quinton." Tamika said, trying to sit up.

The boy didn't acknowledge her, his attention back on the robots. He drew his gun and fired.

Tamika looked around. She tensed when she saw her friend, Akira, get attacked. "Akira!" she yelled, leaping swiftly over the downed battle machine and running towards the brunette, firing her guns at the battle machine.

Suddenly the Iron Condor sparked dangerously, before a part of it collapsed in a heap on the ground. The damaged battle machine staggered before collapsing on the ground, out of commission.

A rookie pulled his Stealth Hunter's blade out of the mess. "You girls alright?" he asked.

"TRISTAN LOOK OUT!" Akira screamed.

The pilot had just the time to turn before the three blasts from the Iron Condors consumed both him and his battle machine.

Tamika felt her heart clench. Things were out of control. It was only a matter of seconds before the base was completely destroyed and ever-

A deafening roar silenced her thoughts.

Everyone looked up, robot and human.

There was a flash of blue and white, and suddenly, three Iron Condors exploded.

The flash of white returned, this time flying upwards, before doing a sharp dive, destroying two more Iron Condors. "Sorry I took so long! The Exo-Force is here!"

Another roar was heard, and this time, the forest around the base exploded, and Golden Guardians began to fire and the robots.

Tamika felt like cheering. Help arrived just in time.

* * *

Rika climbed into her Golden Guardian. She piloted the battle machine out of the garage and into the night.

She clicked the radio on. "Hikaru?"

The blue haired pilot looked up from what he was doing. "Oh hey Rika, what's up?"

Rika thought for a couple of seconds. "I've heard about the attack on Elthra and Tyono. Why do you think the robots suddenly aimed for those areas?"

Hikaru shrugged. "I'm trying to figure it out. I've sent Ha-Ya-To and a couple of Golden Guardians to help the recruits. For Tyono, I've got two squadrons of Stealth Hunters off to protect the town."

"How come? The town hasn't been targeted." Rika resisted the urge to say 'yet', as the attack on the trainees had taken them completely by surprise.

"Elthra is very close to Tyono. The robots had probably been expecting to take the base easily before advancing to take over the town, Sensei Keiken with it. How battle machines do we have left?"

Rika looked back inside the garage. "About a dozen Grand Titans and three squadrons of Gate Defenders and one of Uplinks. Takashi and Ryo haven't returned yet. And there's still two more Golden Guardians, including mine."

Hikaru nodded. "Good. Tell the duo to get back here. It's possible that the robots were trying to spread our forces. We might be expecting an attack."

Rika nodded. She looked at his preoccupied features. "Hikaru?"

"Just a second." He left the screen. Rika heard him talking to someone else, most likely through a talkie walkie. After a couple of minutes, he returned, looking slightly relieved, yet concerned. "Sorry about that. What did you want?"

Rika noticed the change in his features. "You look worried. Is something wrong?"

Hikaru stayed silent for a moment. Rika could almost see the gears spinning in his head. "The attack on Elthra was so sudden…we had to give up a large number of our forces to protect several areas at once…The robots are obviously trying to force us to separating our strength in order to protect several areas at once."

"And? We still got a good number of pilots and battle machines here."

"I know. But if there's going to be an attack on the Golden City, that's not my main problem."

Rika tilted her head. "Then what is it? If you're thinking that the robots have suddenly become much more intelligent, that isn't exactly surprising. Even as robots, they can do a couple of upgrades in their intelligence."

Hikaru nodded. He looked ready to say something, before mentally debating on something.

"Hikaru, what's wrong?"

The electric blue-eyed pilot shook his head. "Nothing. Are you planning on going on patrol?"

Rika nodded.

"I'd like it if you remained in the city. Just in case there's an attack."

Rika shrugged. "All right." She prepared to hang up, but she stopped, her finger hovering just above the button. "Hikaru?"

"Yeah?"

"About this afternoon...could we do it again?"

Hikaru grinned. "Promise that we will." He winked at her. "See you later." With that, he hung up.

Rika sighed and put her talkie walkie away, a smile appearing on her face.

* * *

Takashi snarled as he spun his bladed shield, ripping a Dark Panther in pieces. At the same time, he swung the guns of his Blade Titan and fired, the blast tearing through the Thunder Fury like paper.

The destroyed battle machine collapsed in a heap on the ground, but was replaced by another Thunder Fury, which fired at the human, forcing him to go on the defensive once again.

"Dang it!" he yelled in irritation as he fired his guns, at the old battle machine, destroying it instantly, while running sideways, knocking an Iron Condor off balance and crushing it with the weight of his battle machine. "Get out of the way!"

He stepped over the Cyclone Defender that was lying on the ground, completely pulverized. Ryo had been overwhelmed by the Shadow Crawlers, and Takashi had been unable to help him due to the gap the robots had forced in between the two friends.

Ryo was now, trapped in a Shadow Crawler and being brought to the Southern Side of the mountain, and it was up to Takashi alone to get him to safety.

Takashi swung the Blade Titan's guns, knocking a Sentry II off its feet and into a Claw Crusher, sending both battle machines into a hole. He ran forward, slashing at another Dark Panther that attempted to stop him, separating its left leg from the main body.

Takashi twisted his battle machine around, ignoring the metal screaming at him to stop and let it rest, and fired at an Arachnoid Stalker that was scuttling towards him and dangerously high speed.

"MOVE IT!" he charged at two Thunder Furies. Both battle machines raised their weapons and fired a point blank range. Takashi yelled in surprise as he heard the glass of his cockpit shatter. The Blade Titan crashed into the two robot battle machines.

The three weapons burst out of the forest, and off, much to Takashi's horror-he had not seen it with the amount of battle machines-began to fall off the ledge behind.

Takashi screamed as he felt his stomach reach his throat, and the sudden lack of weight of his battle machine. He braced himself for the inevitable landing which he was sure to die from.

There was an extremely violent bang. Takashi was thrown against the damaged glass of the cockpit, his metal seat-belt the only thing that kept him from getting thrown out. He felt his battle machine bounce like a ball right of the ground, spinning in all directions. Takashi was jolted in all directions, banging his head against the sides of the cockpit, and bruising his arms and legs against the broken glass.

He caught a glimpse of the two Thunder Furies-or what remained of them-being torn off him, and pieces of his battle machine getting dented and smashed by the collision and the rolling, before closing his eyes tightly, bracing himself for falling off the bridge again.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the Blade Titan finally came to a rest. It rolled one more time, before sliding back cockpit-first on the bridge.

Takashi let his body go limp for several incredibly long minutes. His head was thudding and his entire body was throbbing with wounds and bruises. Desperately trying to control the dizziness and the pain that surged through his body, he piloted the battle machine back to its feet. The engine whined in protest, and the metal grunted under the weight, but Takashi was relieved to see that the Blade Titan still responded to his touch.

He looked at the damage taken. The glass was shattered, what remained was stuck in the corners of the cockpit. The shoulders and the shins of the battle machine had been ripped open, leaving barely a thin patch of zaylium, sometimes revealing the skeleton and the wires of the limbs, such as on the right shoulder.

The Bladed Shield was useless: the blades had been completely destroyed and only one third of the shield remained. Takashi hoped that he would still be able to use it to at least protect himself. He looked at the guns, and the view of what remained of them almost made his heart break. Only two of the six canons remained of the Gatling Laser Canon. The other four had been pulverized, and the holes were patched with bent, thick and sometimes, melted zaylium.

Takashi sighed. It appeared that the battle machine had lost all its Lythanium from the fall. Even the zaylium barely survived from the crash.

He looked at the two Thunder Furies. They were lying on the ground, completely pulverized. Pieces lay all over the place, and some of the battle machines' limbs had been ripped off, some only holding to the main body by a few wires.

Takashi shivered. "I'm gonna become like Ryo." He muttered, as a feeling of guilt grew in the pit of his stomach. He looked at the computer, and pressed a few buttons.

It sparked before erupting; showering Takashi with sparks, before leaving a molten slag behind. Takashi groaned. Normally, he would return to the Golden City immediately, seeing that his battle machine clearly wasn't going to withstand another attack.

But Ryo was held prisoner.

Takashi gritted his teeth. Ryo was more important. There was no time to call for help. Besides, it was likely that the Blade Titan's comm. system was destroyed with the crash. No, he'll have to do this alone.

The Blade Titan-or what remained of the powerful battle machine-turned, and began to walk towards the southern side of the mountain.

* * *

Hikaru slumped back in his chair. "What's taking them so long?" he asked to himself, looking at the clock with now read 11:48 pm. "Sensei said he'd be back about an hour ago." HIkaru took out his talkie walkie. He remembered sending troops to Tyono just in case in was attacked. He deeply hoped nothing bad happened there.

The black object in his hand suddenly crackled to life. "Hikaru? It's me, Keiken speaking. How are things at the Golden City?"

Hikaru nearly whooped for joy at the sound of his mentor's voice, so great was his relief. "F-fine! Nothing bad has happened here. How was the evening?"

He heard a thick silence, and the pilot suddenly realized his mistake. "Oh-uh, sorry Sensei. I, uh, meant to say-"

"It's alright Hikaru." Keiken spoke. "Things have been fine…till about half an hour. The robots seemed to have known about our little trip. Everyone got out fine. Though I can't say the same thing about the town or two of the battle machines you sent to help us. Is there anything to report?"

Hikaru nodded, despite that Keiken couldn't see him. "Yes, remember Elthra-"

"Hikaru, I know age in beginning to catch up with me, but I do remember where our recruits are trained."

Hikaru reddened. "Um, yes Sensei. Anyway, they were attacked-"

"WHAT?"  
"But Ha-Ya-To and a legion of Golden Guardians left to help them. I got a report from Ha-Ya-To a little while ago saying that the base had taken a huge beating, and there were seven deaths, but nothing more."

Hikaru heard another thick silence. But this was a different kind, and Hikaru knew it very well. He grabbed the microphone of the speakers, and prepared to pass orders to the other pilots.

He heard Keiken speak, very softly and dangerously. "Hikaru…tell all pilots to return to the Golden City at once. Tell them to get ready for battle."

"Y-yes Sensei." Hikaru grabbed the mike and switched it so he was talking to all the pilots in their battle machines. "Everyone, return to the Golden City immediately! I repeat, return to the Golden City immediately!"

Suddenly, a loud screech was heard. Hikaru leaped stealthily out of his seat and looked out the window. His face turned into an emotionless one.  
An army of robots was beginning to cross the bridge towards the Golden City.

Leading them was the Striking Venom.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To looked around and sighed at the mess. Elthra was in ruins. "Looks like the place won't be used for a while…" he said. "It's so sad…I still remember throwing water balloons on Hikaru on those bleachers…why did the robots have to destroy this place?" he complained.

Tamika shook her head. "They seemed to have known this area only recently. Or else they would've attacked months ago." She looked at the red head. "What's going to happen to us?"

Ha-Ya-To grinned at her. "Easy, the recruits who are almost done with their training are most likely going to come with us at the Golden City to finish the remaining stuff they have to do. The others will surely be moved to outposts deeper in the mountain."

Tamika nodded understandingly. She carefully stepped over the destroyed speakers. "At least we won't have any reports to listen to in the middle of the night." She said. "Sometimes, the tutors forgot to switch these things off, so we'd hear their conversations during the night."

Ha-Ya-To continued to grin. "Any good blackmail material?"

Tamika shrugged. "It sometimes got a little embarrassing, sometimes it was hilarious, sometimes it was just plain awful."  
"Why?"  
Tamika reddened. "They sometimes get perverted ideas, and they talk about it in between them." She looked at the legendary pilot, who was now looking very cheerful. She suddenly realized that she said something that should've been said. "Um…they didn't say anything about me or-"

Ha-Ya-To burst out laughing. "I have some awesome ideas. Expect the tutors to never live this down okay?" he patted her on the back. He looked at the destroyed speaker. "Hikaru loved Taylor Swift until I started singing it in two in the morning in the shower and on the city's speakers. I think I'll make him ruin his love for Simple Plan. Anyway," He slipped his arm around her waist, "wanna grab a grub? I'm starving. I didn't get to eat dinner because of the dumb robots."

Tamika grinned. "Oh you wish. I'm not sure my brother-"

"Your brother's a moron. An over-protective moron. Good thing he doesn't know we're together. But really, you wa-" the crackling of his talkie walkie silenced him. Reaching out for it, he spoke. "I kidnapped your brother and raped your sister…oh hey Hikaru, what's-what...oh come…seriously…all right I'm coming" He switched it off. "Forgive me oh mighty empress, but I'll have to leave you."

Tamika rolled her eyes. "What's the problem this time?"

Ha-Ya-To began to jog back to his Aero Booster. "I have to save some cookies that are being held hostage in the cookie jar! See ya!"

* * *

Ryo gritted his teeth to avoid screaming when a robot grabbed a fist-full of his hair and pulled him violently out of the Prisoner Pod. "What do you want with me! Why is it always me?" he yelled, struggling break loose from his captors.

"Human shall remain silent." And Iron Drone ordered, keeping an extremely firm grip on Ryo's arms.

"Let go of me you tin cans!" he snapped, kicking the robot in a futile attempt to make him let go. His foot connected with the brown iron, making a loud banging sound.

Ryo winced. A stubbed toe. Another injury to add to all the wounds he currently had all around his body.

The iron drone did not seem to appreciate the physical assault. It raised its clawed-like hand, and slashed at Ryo.

The engineer gasped as pain exploded through his body once again. He fell on the floor twitching, trying desperately to get moving. But the slash had ripped the fighting right out of him.

He barely noticed the fact that he was being carried away. He peered through his half shut eyes, and tried to look through the dark and hazy surroundings. But everything was so blurry…

He was thrown on the floor again, but this time, Ryo made no reaction to run or resist.  
Loud footsteps came his way. Ryo found himself staring at a pair of large and black boots. He looked up weakly at the figure that was towering over him. He forced his eyes to focus. It was humanoid, in fact, was most likely a human. His black cloak covered his features, and through the hood that was lifted over his head, Ryo saw a black and white mask. Only the view of the mask (which seemed to be out of metal) sent shivers down Ryo's spine.

"I told you to keep him awake and with sufficient energy." The figure (the mask made the voice sound more metallic, so Ryo couldn't determine if it was a boy or a girl) snapped. "Not in such a rusted and used condition." He/she stared at the Iron Drone with such hatred and anger the robot took a step back. But what made Ryo's heart race was not the action of the robot, but that the figure's voice was actually known to him.

"My lord, humans are weak creatures that are easily damaged. This one didn't seem to make it out as you wished." It answered in its metallic voice.

The figure nodded. "Very well. Now be gone!" he/she barked. "And do not bother to come in, even at the sound of screams. I wish to speak to this man alone."

The Iron Drone bowed and stepped out of the door, leaving the wounded Ryo with the figure.

Ryo painfully climbed to his feet. Whoever was behind this mask was obviously a human, and Ryo knew him. He just…he couldn't exactly remember who. Maybe he was getting out of here. "Who…who are you?"

The figure swung its head back at him. "Well the player can still move. Maybe my impressions were wrong. Copies are stronger than they appear."

Ryo blinked. "Wait…what?" Fear bubbled in him. Ok, maybe this guy was crazy or something. "Who are you?" he asked, with more violence, trying to sound threatening.

The figure roared with laughter. "Really Ryo, do you think you can actually overpower me? You're a riot." He turned from the techie and walked towards the windows and gestured at Ryo come close. "Come."

Ryo decided the figure was no threat, just a bit crazy. He limped towards him/her, his guard still up. He looked through the glass. The most beautiful scene met his eyes. It was the Golden City, flooded with sunlight. The base of the Exo-Force team was seating in the mountain's rock, giving an amazing perception of the buildings and the higher level of the room Ryo was standing in allowed him to see the humans run or walk left around. The beam of light of the Golden Tower shot upwards, and disappeared into the sky, giving the city a look of power and invincibility.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

Ryo looked at the figure that was standing beside him. He only noticed how tall it was, taller than him, and judging by the size of the shoulders, stronger than him-probably as strong, if not stronger that Takashi. "What of it?" he asked.

The man (?) sighed behind the mask. "To run in the sun…to fight for glory and pride…and to stand with the ones you're supposed to protect…that is what I see…"

Ryo's mind was going out of control. Who was this guy and why was he showing and telling him all this? How did he manage to change from a ridiculously violent attitude to gentle one? And what did he mean by Copies? "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, looking out the window once again.

The man looked back at Ryo. The engineer shuddered. Gentle or not, that mask was still scary. "My my. You really are dense. I can see some logic in this." He suddenly grabbed Ryo by the collar and brought him so close to him that Ryo felt the cold of his breath. "Why did he do this?" he whispered dangerously, his voice full of venom and hatred.

Ryo tried to break free, but his injuries stopped him from moving properly. "Wh…what are you talking about?"

The man grip moved from Ryo's collar to his face. He squeezed it, sending a surge of pain through the engineer. "I have a whole army of robots, even a Striking Venom waiting for me to give the orders to attack. Now answer me." He repeated very slowly. "WHY DID HE DO THIS?" he roared.

Ryo glared back through the fingers. "I have no idea what you're talking about! Now let go!"

The man tightened his grip. He reached out with his other hand, a mike lying on the table beside him. "Launch attack. Kill all those who oppose you." He snapped in it.

Ryo felt the deck plates vibrate under him, and his eyes widened in horror when he realized what was happening. There was going to be an attack!  
Suddenly, he saw robot battle machines flooding out from the lower levels and run towards the city of Gold. "NO!" he glared with complete hatred at the man. "Why are you doing this? You're a human too! Why are you betraying your own kind like this?"

The man hissed behind the mask. He threw Ryo backwards. "I could ask you the same question. You're not even supposed to be here, to be alive."

"What are you talking about?"

The man ran a hand through his mask, as though thinking about taking it off. "Four years ago…I had joined the Exo-Force with my friends. There had been a battle…I was grievously injured. I looked up to Keiken to aid me…he took me in to the infirmary…but things did not go as I hoped…Keiken…he used me." The man slammed his fist into the wall beside him, his entire arm going right through it. "I…he recreated me…some clone…to take my place…He then disposed of me. When I was dying, I saw him…Meca One." The man ran his a hand down his mask again. "He promised me revenge if I aided him. I helped him create the most powerful battle machines in existence…but both of them were stopped…"

Ryo's mind went wild. "Wait…you designed…" he paled. The Striking Venom. The Mobile Devastator. This same man…created them?

"When Meca One was destroyed, by YOU!" he pointed accusingly at Ryo, "I took his place. The robots bowed to me. And this time…this time I will finish the job Meca One has started."  
Ryo snarled. "To wipe out humanity?"

The man roared with laughter. "Of course not. Meca One never saw the point of killing you. No, he simply saw you as inferior beings. And how was he right."  
"Might I remind you, you're also a human moron!"

The figure seemed to smile behind the cold metal mask. "Or so you think…some things aren't what they seem."

Ryo had enough. Using the little energy he had left, he lunged and the man. "Time for you to take that mask off and see the TRUTH!" he yelled. "Meca One BLINDED you!" he yelled.

The man offered no resistance.

Ryo got his hand on the metal mask. He gave it a sharp yank and tore it off. He threw out his fist to punch the man's lights out, till he caught a glimpse of the face.

The mask slipped out of his hand and hit the floor with a resonating _clang_.

Ryo took steps back, his face full of disbelief and horror. He suddenly found it very hard to breath. "No…how…"  
Looking back at him, with eyes blazing with hatred, was none other than himself.

* * *

Hikaru leaped stealthy into his Sky Guardian. He didn't wait for the metal belts to click into place that he grabbed the mike and spoke to all the other pilots and mechanics present in the city. "Listen up everyone. We're up-alone-against a large robot force and one of the most powerful robot battle machines in existence. But both can be defeated. I demand your complete cooperation for this battle. Am I clear?"

He heard a roar of cheers.

Hikaru kicked the rudder of the Sky Guardian, and the blue and white battle machine flew up high into the air. Hikaru was confident: they had already taken the Striking Venom down though they had taken a huge beating themselves. But this time, they knew how to stop it, and their battle machines had upgrades. This time, the victory won't be as hard as before.

He flew over the Golden City, making a headcount of all the battle machines present. About a dozen Grand Titans were running out of their garages and into the sun. They were followed by about twenty Uplinks. Another garage opened its doors, and a large number of Gate Defenders flew out of it. Hikaru quickly lost count, but he swore there were at least fifteen of them. Judging by the speed and agility of the old battle machines, they were all equipped with Lythanium. Hikaru hoped that the engineers had done a good job, or else this fight would be quickly over.

"You ready Hikaru?"

The aerial pilot turned to see the two remaining Golden Guardians present in the city fly towards him. He took a deep breath. "How does Sensei Keiken do this? I hate speeches." He muttered.

He saw Rika flash him a smile. "Hey, no one's too fond of them. And you're a leader. This is your thing!"

Hikaru groaned. He saw the humans crowding at the doors, waiting for them to open. He grabbed his mike once again. "All right everyone. I know the Striking Venom caused a huge amount of damage to us, but this time we know its weakness, and we've got many upgrades the robots are unaware of yet. So this time, we're the ones who are going to destroy the robots completely" He shuddered at the explosion of a blast that hit the walls. "Grand Titans, guard the doors. Don't let anything past. One Golden Guardian stay at the Golden Tower just in case, the other, get under and destroy the bridge from underneath. Gate Defenders! You're all with me! Attack the aerial battle machines and keep the Striking Venom busy as long as possible! Avoid casualties as much as possible!" He spun his Sky Guardian around, now facing the approaching army. He felt guilty of yelling Takashi's line, but the pilot was not around. Hikaru prayed that nothing bad happened to him. "EXO-FORCE! FOR VICTORY!"

There was a huge cheer, as the Golden City's doors opened, and the human army flooded out, charging at the robots.

Hikaru placed his emotionless face on, and pushed the controls forward. The Sky Guardian spun around and dove at the enemy.

* * *

Takashi looked around. The hallway was empty. He piloted his almost completely destroyed Blade Titan around the corner, pointing the two remaining guns of the Gatling laser canon. Still none.

The Blade Titan broke into a run. Takashi kept a focused glare on his damaged screen, giving him a map in the robot headquarters. All pilots had a small chip attached to their bodies which allowed them to be found on the radar system in case they got lost or separated from the team.

And after the screens, Ryo was just up ahead.

Takashi ran through the wall, causing it to collapse entirely. He coughed at the smoke and shook his head as though it would protect it from the rocks that fell on him. He heard the blaring of the alarms indicating that a robot battle machine was just in front of him.

Takashi knew that if he battled every robot he encountered, he wouldn't make it. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" he roared at the top of his lungs, increasing the speed on the Blade Titan.

He never knew what the opposing battle machine was. He rammed into it, keeping his eyes tightly shut.

He felt the impact knock the robot battle machine right off its feet and into some unknown direction. However, the attack had consequences on both him and his battle machine: the violent collision sent a powerful jolt of pain scream down his body. Takashi gritted his teeth, trying to fight the coughs that were forcing their way up his throat. He tasted blood coming from them.

His Blade Titan gave huge screech of metal, and the left shoulder-the one with the remains of the shield-exploded and fell limp on its side.  
Takashi continued his crazy, almost suicidal race. "Come on…come on…just a little longer…" he pleaded to both him and his battle machine. "Ryo you'd better not be hurt." He whispered, before breaking into another series of coughs.

* * *

Ryo didn't know what was wrong with him. He was completely paralyzed. His skeleton refused to obey him; his muscles tensed, but wouldn't move. His brain was going haywire and his heart was hammering uncontrollably, and Ryo was afraid it would suddenly shut down.

He stood in front…well he wasn't sure who, but there was one thing he was certain about: the man had the exact same face as him. It was as though…they were twins (or triplets, adding Rika in the mix).

There was his original untidy black hair, the same jaw-line and the confident brown eyes.

"What…wh…" Ryo quickly realized that his voice had also failed him.

His...other self (?)…laughed. "Well it looks like now that you're facing the truth, you've lost all your confidence. Do you finally understand?"

Ryo was too shocked to speak.

The man grinned. "I take your silence as a no. All right. Remember when I said Keiken did an experiment on me? Replaced me with a low-leveled replica? Well that replica is no other than you."

Ryo finally found his voice. "Wh…what? I have no memory of this happening! How can…if that were true then I wouldn't have any memories since my childhood. And I do! So I can't be a clone! Unless…" he turned pale.

The man smirked. "Exactly. Clones share the same DNA, but the same abilities and memories. And you know what's more?" he leaned in closely at Ryo and whispered in his ear. "You think your…what did you call it? Golden Angel? Is so strong and you want to use it as your secret weapon? Such a shame that you'll never get to use it. Especially when I sent some robots to destroy your precious workhouse.

Ryo paled. "How…did you…"

"When replicas are made, the original is capable of reading the replica's mind without the slightest difficulty. I can see what you see. Hear what you hear." The original whispered.  
"Why…why would Sensei…"

"He needed a genius. Age was catching up with him. He needed someone to be the brains of the Exo-Force. You're nothing than a tool to him. A puppet. When he won't need you, he'll dispose of you. Just as he did to me."

Ryo clenched his fist. "It's…it's not true." He answered. "Sensei…he would never do this."

"And yet he did. Ask him if you don't believe me." The man looked up when he heard some loud noises coming his way. "Looks like your friend his here is arriving. I'll make my departure." He turned and walked away, his cloak bellowing behind him.  
Ryo managed to make his body move. "Wait! Wh-"

"If you want to know my name, it is Vali." And with that, the man vanished as though he had never existed.

The wall exploded, and Takashi in the remains of his Blade Titan skidded to a halt. "RYO!" he screamed. "WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"  
But Ryo still stood there…completely shocked by what had just happened.  
"RYO!"  
Already the thudding of the robot battle machines were making themselves heard. Ryo took a step closer to the Blade Titan, his eyes still on the area where Vali had disappeared.

"RYO SNAP OUT OF IT!" Takashi heard the rumbling get louder. The radar crackled before screaming warnings at him. "RYO! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF-" he was silenced by the huge coughs, causing blood to drip between his teeth and out of his lips.

Somehow, that caught Ryo's attention. He turned and raced towards the battle machine. In a couple of swift movements, he was holding onto Takashi. "What…what did you do to…"

"Long story shor-*cough cough* short. I got in a little tr*cough*ouble trying to save you."

The wall exploded, and battle machines poured out, immediately opened fire on the devastated Blade Titan.

Takashi yelled his battle cry, and threw his battle machine sideways, and into the wall. Ryo winced as the wall collapsed, and braced himself when the Blade Titan began to fall.

* * *

Hikaru yelled as he fired his particle beam rifle and spinning his energy blade in a complete circle, destroying three battle machines at once. The carcasses of the machines fell like rocks onto the bridge below, damaging the other battle machines.

The pilot saw the Uplinks hiding protectively behind destroyed battle machines. Their fire was nourished by the Grand Titans, but even with the upgrades given, the older battle machines could barely stand against the Dark Panthers and the Shadow Crawlers.

And there was still the Striking Venom to worry about.

The massive black and green battle machine had not yet fired its guns, but was slowly inching its way towards the human forces.

Hikaru started flying towards it. He was stopped by three more Iron Condors, which quickly surrounded him and fired at him. The aerial pilot fought hard not to yell in frustration. "Move it." He said. He flipped his wrists sideways, causing the Sky Guardian to spin in a complete circle. The robots shots sailed past the Sky Guardian, its movements dodging the attacks, and hit the robot on the opposing side. They erupted in a beautiful display of explosions.

"There's really nothing new about you guys." He stated as he watched the flaming battle machines spiraled out of control and towards the distant.

With nothing stopping, Hikaru dove at the Striking Venom.

The deadly battle machine raised all the guns and vomited streams of destruction at him. The robot piloting the Striking Venom pressed a few buttons, and the magnetized blasters activated, spitting out disks one after the other.

But Hikaru saw the attacks coming. He twisted the joysticks of his battle machine. He heard the engines adjusting to the amount of energy needed. Suddenly, the white and blue battle machine doubled its speed, and began to do extremely fast barrel rolls and evasions. Left, right, up down, barrel roll, down, the Sky Guardian was a flash of lightning, dodging the beams fired with impressive agility and speed.

Just as he flew past it, Hikaru dug his energy blade into the main body of the Striking Venom. He felt as though time slowed as he flew past it, inspecting the damage he caused, before accelerating again, making the Sky Guardian scream past.

The Striking Venom sparked, but the top turrets mauled at the Sky Guardian, having no intention of letting the human escape intact from his achievement.

Hikaru flew under the bridge. He almost crashed into Rika, who was waiting for her command to shoot.

"Fire!" the leader yelled, as he shot past her.

Hikaru shot back up on the bridge. Accidently knocking a Thunder Fury off the edge, he landed on the platform. He was about to yell at Rika to shoot, when a piece of the bridge exploded, and a green beam shot out, incinerating the leg of Shadow Crawler, causing it to overbalance and topple over the side of the bridge.

This happened a second time, unfortunately missing completely.

Hikaru nodded. If Rika kept up the shooting, the robots would become more hesitant in charging.

"Hikaru! Help!"

Hikaru snapped his head to the left, seeing three Uplinks trapped, the gorge barely a step behind them, and three Shadow Crawlers inching towards them, ignoring the barrage of blasts the humans were firing desperately.

"Hang on guys, I'm my way!" he yelled. He had the Sky Guardian break into a sprint. However, two Thunder Furies leaped in his way, forcing him to stop in his tracks. "NO!" he yelled as he saw one of the Uplinks fall over the edge.

* * *

Ha-Ya-To was whistling in his Aero Booster, eating a bagel he had managed to swipe from the Elthra kitchens. Flying at a reasonable speed (for him), the redhead looked around, searching for the Golden City. Knowing his horrible sense of direction, he was relying on the computers to get him back.

Don't get him wrong, he was quite aware of the dangerous situation the Golden City was currently in, but he wanted to make the epic appearance and act like a total badass.

Besides, the pictures needed time to be fully developed. And there was no point in hurrying. And Ha-Ya-To had only one rule: priority to pranks. They always went first. Even if humanity was on the verge of being wiped out.

And speaking of pranks…

Ha-Ya-To grinned devilishly. He knew Hikaru might bust him up later, but he seriously didn't care.

The Aero Booster flew around a cliff, and found the bridge where the fighting was taking place. Ha-Ya-To grinned. Now to wait for…

He saw a small orange battle machine fall.  
The redhead made a wild dive. "GO DYNAMIC BADASS ENTRANCE!"

* * *

Hikaru watched in horror as the Uplink fell over the edge. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" he yelled, firing all his rockets at once, destroying all the robots in his way, before charging and slashing at the Shadow Crawlers with his energy blade.

"Thanks Hikaru…" one of the boys in the remaining two Uplinks muttered.

HIkaru gritted his teeth. "Retreat to the City. We're overwhelmed." He snapped. "Grand Titans, get back to the City! Gate Defenders; hit the robots gas-containers! Golden Guardians, head back to the Golden City and prepare to defend the tower!" Hikaru didn't bother to listen to the affirmations. He took off and readied him self to attack the Striking Venom, when he heard a powerful roar.

"GO DYNAMIC BADASS ENTRANCE!"

Hikaru almost yelled in surprise, as a flash of blue and white flashed from under the bridge and up into the sky. "Ha-Ya-To?" he asked.

The Aero Booster made a sharp U-Turn, and dove for the bridge. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Just looking for the best moment." Ha-Ya-To said. "And I've got a delivery for you!" he announced. When he was a foot high from the ground, he dropped the Uplink that had previously fallen.

Hikaru felt like hugging his friend. "About time! Where are the others?"

"On their way! Sensei said he'll be here in an hour or so!" Ha-Ya-To said. He took off. "Now how about we blast a couple of robots while waiting for them? They seem desperate to visit the city."

Hikaru looked to see the robot army attack the retreating humans. The Striking Venom was slowly inching its way forward towards them. He shrugged, his former confidence and calm returning. "Why not?" He said. He took off. "DIBS ON THE AERIAL BATTLE MACHINES!" he yelled.

Ha-Ya-To smirked. "All right." He said, taking off and firing at the advancing robots.

"TAKASHI YOU IDIOT!" Ryo yelled. "HOW STUPID DO YOU GET?"

Takashi managed to get his coughing under control. "How was I supposed to know…" he gripped his throat as though it would stop the coughing. "It's not that bad…"

"Oh no…we're just falling…and our landing will be right on the FREAKING STRIKING VENOM!"

Takashi winced. "I can…take it on." He shifted in his seat. "Just give me-" he suddenly gave a huge gasp, and blood began pouring out of his mouth. His eyes closed and he fell limp on the controls.

Ryo paled. "TAKASHI!" he yelled. He shook the boy, but he only got silence as an answer. He looked out and at the Striking Venom, whose size was now increasing dangerously. Ryo grabbed Takashi's arm, and began to unhook the handles off his hands. The metal pad was ripped off. Ryo slipped it on, and began pressing buttons on the battle machine's control board.

The heavily damaged battle machine sparked, and the engines gave a huge cough as they fought to remain functional.

The left leg exploded. Ryo tried his best to protect Takashi from the pieces of melted metal that hit the main body of the battle machine.

Ryo looked down at the leg. The entire shin and foot had disappeared and all that remained was a smoking knee with the skeleton of the thigh. The Striking Venom was barely a mile down. It would only be a couple of seconds till they collided with it.

Ryo looked around. Takashi was completely unconscious, but was still secure in the seat, the metal bars clinging him to what remained of the powerful battle machine.

Maybe the ejection would work.

Ryo reached out for the red alarm button in the handle while holding on tightly to Takashi He felt the seat punch him hard in the gut, and a huge amount of steam was released. Ryo's spirits soared.

The back of the Blade Titan erupted in flames. Ryo felt his hopes collapse almost instantly.

The ejection seat had failed them.

Ryo looked around madly. The wind whistled at him, reminding him of the ominous threat of hitting the Striking Venom right underneath him. If only he had a gun, or a rocket launcher or a…

Rocket launcher…

Ryo lunged back at the controls. Takashi was not the type to use his rockets. There was a chance…he found the button he was looking for and slammed his fists on it, suddenly becoming extremely religious.

He heard the left shoulder give an ear-splitting scream of pain. It coughed out smoke, and four yellow rockets shot out of it.

They rammed into the Striking Venom Below, right at the level of the top turrets, causing a dazzling display of explosions and smoke. Ryo raised the right arm of the Blade Titan, the only one still working, and swung.

Just as the Blade Titan fell past the Striking Venom, the heavily damaged guns sunk into the smoke of the turrets.

Ryo prayed that his plan would work. Or else they were done for.

* * *

Hikaru dodged the Fire Vulture's attack and fired. The green sphere shot right through the engines, making the battle machine start an uncontrollable dive.

"Hey Ha-Ya-To? You read me?" he spoke in the mike.

The Aero Booster blasted two Thunder Furies right off the bridge, before flying protectively over the Grand Titans that were retreating to the city. "What's up?"

"The Striking Venom attacked only once. Even now it isn't shooting. Do you have any ideas?" Hikaru asked. He was seriously beginning to worry.

Ha-Ya-To flew past Hikaru and towards the advancing threat. "Let me try something. ALL COMM SYSTEMS VOLUME MAX!" he yelled

Hikaru heard the volume mikes and speakers of his battle machine reach their maximum level. "Ha-Ya-"

"_You should've said no, you should've gone home! You shoul_-"

"HA-YA-TO YOU SON OF A-"

Ha-Ya-To burst out laughing as Hikaru started cursing over the music that had filled his battle machine. "Say thanks to Ryo! He's the one who got that installed!"

"WHEN?" Hikaru yelled, venom and murder laced in his voice.

"Oh, I dunno. Makes a little while now." Ha-Ya-To answered cheekily. He fired at the Striking Venom, which suddenly fired a barrage or beams at the human. "But at least the Striking Venom has started shooting again! Are you happy?"

Hikaru fired at the Aero Booster, narrowly, but purposely missing it. "To see YOU go down, YES I'M GLAD! ROT IN HELL! NOW TURN THAT MUSIC OFF NOW!"

Ha-Ya-To made a barrel roll and fired at the Striking Venom. "Hmmm…nope."

Hikaru screamed in exasperation as the music continued to play.

Suddenly the turrets were caught in a huge explosion.

Ha-Ya-To flew to safety, escaping the smoke that reached out for him. "What the-" He saw something reach the level of the damaged turret. "Is that…" It vanished into the smoke.

Suddenly the turrets exploded, and began to spin, completely out of control. Whatever disappeared in the smoke reappeared, one arm tangled in the Striking Venom's small, yet visible energy cord.

Ha-Ya-To heard his comm. system crackle. "HA-YA-TO!" he heard someone yell. "HELP! HURRY UP!"

The red head's mouth plopped open. "Ryo? What are you-"

"I'll explain later. JUST HELP US NOW!" the techie screamed in complete panic.

"Where are you?"

"ON THETURRET!"

The Striking Venom's turret slowed, and Ha-Ya-To saw the thing that had fallen become more visible. He flew closer to it, purposely flying on the side to avoid the guns, and gasped when he realized what it actually was. He grabbed the destroyed Blade Titan and unhooked it from the Striking Venom. "What happened? Are you okay? What about Takashi?"

Ha-Ya-To heard the comm. system crackle something, before going dead. He looked at the wreck, and sighed in relief when he saw Ryo's green uniform and Takashi both inside its remains.

A huge greenish beam shot upwards, narrowly missing the Aero Booster. "WHAT THE HELL HIKARU!" he yelled as the Sky Guardian took off from under the Striking Venom.

"I attempted to kill two birds with one stone: destroy the Striking Venom while trying to shoot you down. And can Ryo hear me?" Hikaru whispered, feeling his ears begging for the Taylor Swift music to stop.

Ha-Ya-To just laughed.

* * *

"His ribs were pulverized. A small bone pierced his lung. And if that's not enough, he's left arm shattered entirely. And without the metal bullet proof vest, he the pieces of Zaylium and Lythanium would've gone deeper into his body." Ryo said. "The doctor said it was a miracle that he was even capable to remain conscious and ALIVE for so long."

Ha-Ya-To slumped on his bed, his face pale. He had returned to his dorm, and was joined with his roommate a couple of moments later. "How long will he be under medical care?"

Ryo sighed. "He was sleeping when I saw him. The doctor says that he'll be forbidden to move for about two or three months, the time for his lung to heal and the bones to strengthen completely."

"His battle machine?"

Ryo groaned. "Don't talk to me about it. The thing's useless! Even the skeleton was heavily damaged."  
Ha-Ya-To paled. "Are you saying…we need the Blade Titan! Without it, we've got no really strong ground power excluding the legion of Golden Guardians and the few Grand Titans!"

Ryo nodded sadly. "And Cylcone Defender is dead." He shook his head. '_And Sensei might betray us…_' he added mentally, trying to rip the memory of Vali out of his mind. He shook his head. Climbing to his feet, he staggered into the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower." He muttered, leaving the red head alone in the room.

Suddenly, someone began banging at the door. _WHAM WHAM WHAM!_

Ha-Ya-To got up. "I got it." He said. He looked through the keyhole. "Ryo, can you open the door?"

"You just said you'd get it."

"Please Ryo?"

"You do it!"

"I'm lazy!"

_WHAM WHAM WHAM!_

"Ryo pleeeaaaaaassssseeee?"

Ryo stormed out of the bathroom, wearing only his pants. "FINE!" he snapped. He yanked the door open. "WHAT DO YOU-"

He caught a glimpse of a pair of murderous eyes, and a fist collided with his cheek.

Ryo yelled more in surprise rather than pain, but didn't have time to recover and he was caught in a headlock by a venomous Hikaru. "Where is he…?" he whispered bloodily

"Wha? LEGGO YOU CANADIAN MORON!" Ryo yelled as he shook himself violently, releasing himself and tackling the pilot.

Ha-Ya-To watched with considerable interest. "You do know that fighting in the streets is illegal." He said.

Both boys stopped fighting and stared at him.

"Sorry, wrong target." Hikaru said, helping Ryo up. The two pilots lunged at the red head, who attempted to run back inside, only to be caught by the shoulders, and thrown on the ground.

"DIE!" Hikaru yelled.

The next second, the three pilots had started a three-way-fight on the ground. Ha-Ya-To grabbed Ryo's collar and was about to hit him, trying to ignore Hikaru's knee that crashed into his stomach, when he noticed Hitomi standing over them, glaring down at them disapprovingly.

The other two noticed and ceased fighting.

Ha-Ya-To helped Hikaru up. "Nice punching. Were you training with Takashi lately?" he asked.

Hitomi rolled her eyes, sighing in exasperation. "Boys." She muttered while walking away.

Ha-Ya-To watched her leave. "WHO'S UP FROM ROUND TWO?" he yelled, kicking Ryo in the groin as hard as he could.

* * *

Hitomi slumped on her bed, after changing in her PJs. She looked at Rika, who was sitting next to her, eating a bowl filled with Ben&Jerrys.

"How was the evening?" Rika asked.

"It was nice. The end got a little wrecked with the robot attack, but they were easily defeated."

Rika nodded. "Hikaru's a good leader. He got us out of the mess." She looked at Hitomi. "You look happy. Did something happen?"

Hitomi grinned. "Oh just the boys fighting. And you how was your 'date'?"

Rika reddened, but smiled all the same. "Awesome. You were right, Hikaru does know about the best areas." Her eyes became dreamy as she started recalling the moment.

Hitomi noticed the look on her face and slowly inched for the bowl. "Gimme the ice-cream." She asked, while shooting her arm out for it.

Rika snapped back to reality. "Rot in hell." She laughed, keeping it out of her reach.

* * *

_Vali pressed a few buttons on the Jungle Thrasher. The guns were raised. A smirk appeared on his features. "Keiken…this is the end." He whispered._

_Suddenly, all the guns were fired, and rockets were shot._

_They headed towards the Golden City, where they collided against a building on the far north of the city, creating a huge fireball that engulfed the remains of the area._

_Vali reloaded. "And now…Ryo, prepare for what you deserve…" he pulled the trigger._

**Well there you have it! I want to apologize for the lack of suspense in this chapter. I was really excited for it, but for some reason, I just couldn't click back on, so it felt a little off. This is the first time it happened, so I'm a little distabilized.**

**I hope you still enjoyed this and I'll do my best to update ASAP!**

**REVIEW!**


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